Wonder Woman Beginnings: The Alpha And The Omega
by KsenninJR
Summary: A behind the scenes look at the debut of Princess Diana in Man's World, her first meeting with Superman, and her first clashes with the forces of Apokolips. ClarkXDiana
1. Book 1: The Alpha

WONDER WOMAN: BEGINNINGS

BOOK ONE: THE ALPHA

by JR

Based upon stories by George Perez and John Byrne, as featured in the Wonder Woman comic, Volume Two, issues #10-12, and in Action Comics issue #600; told now without any damn censoring.

PROLOGUE: HEADLINES

"Hot dammit!" Eyes and mouth could grow no larger in the field of freckles that was Jimmy Olsen's face. "I mean, look at her! Just LOOK at HER!"

Though few in the crowded newsroom paid any notice, Clark Kent adjusted his glasses, pretending to squint. The first page of the Planet's extra edition Jimmy held was dominated by a large photo. "Ah, yes. The Boston press is calling her Wonder Woman."

"Ya bet she's a wonder, Mr. Kent, look at those..."

"Lemme see that." Lois Lane snatched the paper from Jimmy's hands. Sitting on a corner of Clark's desk, she casually crossed her long legs. "Oh, come on! Couldn't she give them a less obvious cleavage shot?"

"Lois, I don't-"

"Shut up, Smallville. Look at her! It's all about the boobs!" She threw the paper down. "Fake, too."

"Fake?" Jimmy winced. "Really think she ain't real, Ms. Lane?"

"Maybe she can really fly and all that. I'd buy that easier than those tits being real."

"Fake?"

"What'd you think, Smallville?"

"It's not really my-"

"Yeah, yeah, always the gentleman, Smallville; maybe worked for you back in the sticks, but here-?"

"Fake?"

"The important thing, Lois, is whether she's really as powerful as-"

"As Superman? Fat chance. There's only one Superman, boys." She smiled smugly. "I know that well."

"They say she stopped a crisis at a military base that-"

"Ok, she has some powers, or she'd sure as hell topple face-forward with all that silicone up there, but-"

"Silicone?"

"LOIS!"

"HERE, PERRY!"

"Stop bugging Kent, Lois. Let the boy work."

"Oh, Chief, she isn't-"

"Sure, Kent, sure." Perry White, chief editor of The Daily Planet, sat on the desk next to his star female reporter, both with their backs to Clark. "Lois, get something new on that Wonder Woman broad for tomorrow. We need text to go with a new set of pics-"

"Damn, Perry. I thought we had better standards!"

"Girl sells newspapers, Lois. Cute as a doll and wears the Union's colors like a good American; all great by my standards."

"Oh, sure, naked but for a few bits of flag and-"

"Actually I think she isn't American at all-"

"Shut up, Smallville."

"Hey, Chief-"

"Olsen, I've told you not to call me-"

"You think they're fake, Chief?"

"The pictures? FAKE? Who said-?"

"Her chest, Perry."

"What? Oh. Damn, grow up, Olsen."

"It's said she comes from an isolated, all-female society hidden in-"

"Come on, Smallville, you can't believe all that hot lesbian paradise island crap the Meyer Agency is-"

"Lesbian? She's a lesbian?"

"Shut up, Jimmy."

"Lois, you're just jealous someone else got the scoop this time."

"Come on, Perry! You just can't compare a half-naked cheerleader showing up with Superman's-"

Clark Kent adjusted his glasses. "I can do it."

"Uh?"

"Ah, I can do the piece on Ms. Wonder Woman if Lois-"

Lois rolled her eyes. "Yeah, wouldn't you want a piece of that shameless-!"

"If it's fine with-?"

"Sure, go drool at the silicone! MEN!"

"Lois-?"

Perry White shrugged. "Ok, Kent, you do it."

"Could it really be silicone? They look so-"

"SHUT UP, OLSEN!"

PART ONE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

He would always remember that first time.

The mechanical constructs rampaged through the street, each larger than a bus. Quadrupedal extremities and viciously fanged maws destroyed storefronts and parked vehicles.

"Giant robot dogs?" The man in blue tights shook his head. "Who the hell makes giant robot dogs?"

"It's better to make a giant insect flier?" Booster Gold told the frowning Blue Beetle. "Oh, crap, they're coming this way."

"We on candid camera or something?"

"Fuck! Wrist blasters ain't doing shit!"

"I mean, GIANT ROBOT DOGS?"

"Get close to me!"

"What?"

"My force-field! GET-!"

"Oh-shi-!"

A blur of red and blue dove through the head of the canine-like automaton, halting its rush.

"Damn, thanks."

"Maybe you should help with the evacuation." The tall man in the red cape threw the ruined robot aside with ease, before taking to the air again.

"That's Superman."

"I could tell. Big 'S' on the chest kinda gives it away."

"Superman, dude. We're on the big leagues now!"

"And that means giant robot dogs? Sheesh..."

The Man of Steel rushed to intercept more of the giant mechanical creatures, smiling despite himself. Frivolous as they may be during the sudden attack of Apokolipsian robo-hounds, he could not help but find Blue Beetle's dry comments amusing. Maybe he should work with others more often.

Grabbing another robo-hound by the tail, Superman threw the construct against another of its kind, dismantling both. A glowing wedge of green then materialized and pushed most of the remaining pack backwards, towards the containment structure being shaped by Doctor Fate, another of the costumed protectors on the scene.

"Watch and learn, Pretty Boy!" called out the red-headed man with the bowl-haircut, green energy pouring from the ring on his finger.

Superman stopped to nod amiably at Guy Gardner, and was slammed face-down into the pavement. Jaws of metal not forged on Earth crunched around his neck, and for an instant he grimaced, caught off-balance. He was about to throw the attacker off, when the pressure suddenly disappeared. The hound was pulled away and swung about by a black-haired woman in red, blue and gold.

Superman stood up, and stared.

She was tall, but not as large as Big Barda. Yet the Apokolipsian war-machine crumbled in her hands. First impression was of powerful vitality, balanced by understated elegance. She was obviously in amazing shape, but not just because of the natural exuberance of her curves; perfectly toned muscles flexed under her flawless skin. Even after stepping away from her vanquished opponent, she had the relaxed alertness of the trained fighter.

"Thank you," he said, approaching her, noticing with some embarrassment how little modesty her minimal clothing afforded. She turned around then, and long black hair flowed aside like a glossy curtain of night to reveal her face. Unlikely as it seemed, awareness of even her spectacular figure was then lost, banished by the perfect features and the brightness of those clear, blue eyes.

For a moment he almost stammered, at loss for words. "Er, Wonder Woman, I presume?"

She frowned, and the wrinkling over her nose just made her more fetching. "Diana. Of Themyscira."

"Diana." Suddenly presenting himself as Superman seemed a ridiculous boast.

Then she smiled. Somehow that made her radiant beauty increase exponentially, into the truly heartbreaking. "You are the one called Superman."

"Wow," Booster Gold muttered. "Are those real?"

PART TWO: MY PEOPLE WILL CALL YOUR PEOPLE

Vanessa Kapatelis stepped out into the back yard, her thin frame shivering at the night chill, and stared, surprised. She rubbed her eyes, but the moonlit figure of the nude Amazon Princess remained unchanged. Vanessa blushed, unsure of whether to speak or hide.

Diana's long hair fell in thick waves of dark curls covering most of her wide back, stopping a hand span above her waist and the flaring of her athletic hips. Vanessa tried not to stare at the solid, perfectly rounded buttocks crowning the long, muscular legs, but failed.

It was Diana's fault. After all, she was the one going out butt-naked in the middle of the night.

The teenager just shifted on her feet, and the rustle of her pajamas was surely inaudible, yet Diana still turned to her.

"Vanessa?"

"Uh, yeah." Her face grew as red as her frizzled hair, and she fought not to look down from Diana's face, unsure of just how to even stand, her body language full of the awkwardness of most teenagers after their first growth spurts. "Hi."

"Did I wake you?" Diana's accent was still funny.

"Uh, no -well, yeah. Uh, so, watcha doing?"

"Praying."

"To, uh, your... gods?"

"Yes."

Vanessa shifted uneasily. She still wondered if Diana was actually nuts, powers or not, with all that weird talk of old gods out of books being real. Superman also flew and all that, but never talked crazy that she knew about. "Must you be... um, like that? To pray, I mean."

"Oh, does it bother you?"

Vanessa looked up from the awesome boobs, and reddened even deeper. "No! But... You may give a heart attack to one of the neighbors, you know."

"Why?"

"Uh, what're you praying for?" She actually meant the question. Diana already had everything anyone could ever want and more, didn't she?

"Guidance."

"What?"

"I am... perturbed."

"Per-what?"

"I dreamed again. Of him."

"Him? You mean-?"

"Superman."

* * *

Clark Kent rarely perspired at all, but this time he woke up covered with sweat, and for an instant he felt like a teenager again, furiously embarrassed, worried that Ma would walk in. This almost never happened to him; he had better self-control.

But he had dreamed again about Her.

* * *

"Superman? SUPERMAN?" Mindy Mayer's eyes lighted up. "Diana, dear, of course! It's fantastic! Fabulous! Should've thought of it myself!"

Princess Diana of Themyscira shifted uneasily on her sandaled feet. Something in Meyer's luxurious office, in the whole floor housing the public relations company, made Diana uneasy. She had been told the assistance of professionals was needed to better reach people with her Amazon message of peace and harmony, but each time she came to this place, she felt like it was all a cage, a gilded cage, shiny but cruelly restraining.

"I'll get you two a date in no time! Oh, the press will eat this up! You'll be the hottest couple ever!"

* * *

"Oh, is it you?" Diana smiled brightly and held the telephone receiver tightly. "Your voice... sounds so different."

"Ah, yes. It's... complicated."

"I wanted to see you. Can we-?"

"You're asking me-?"

"Is that alright? I don't know if-"

"No, no. Of course I'd like to see you, too."

"Yes?"

"Yes. Sure."

"Where can-?"

Mindy Meyer smiled, watching the young woman nervously fidget with the telephone's cord while she spoke. Diana always appeared so centered, so assured, that it was amusing to see her so flustered. It was actually humanizing. Maybe they could use it, somehow.

Superman. It was just perfect. She could spin it into a media frenzy. And all it had taken was a promise of an interview with Diana to that Kent fellow.

* * *

Hanging up the phone, Clark Kent felt the need to sit down and breathe deeply.

It was just a date. A date. People did that all the time. It was ridiculous to feel any anxiety. Beautiful as she was, she was also warm and friendly.

And she had called him. She called him.

Yet there was something about her: a sense of aloofness, of detachment, somehow at odds with the warmth her smile and voice conveyed. She was also actual royalty, a real princess from a strange foreign land, and that unsettled him. Despite his Kryptonian heritage, he had been raised a simple Kansas farmboy. Lois made a point of always reminding him of that, didn't she?

Lois and Wonder Woman, in so many ways they were so different, yet also so alike. Lois seemed to go out of her way to make him feel inadequate. Wonder Woman did the same by just being there.

He shook his head. It was just a date. Wasn't it?

PART THREE: THE DATE

"Why do you wear those?"

"What, the glasses?"

"Yes, those. Don't you-?"

"It's a disguise."

"A disguise?"

"So people don't... think I'm someone else."

"And they don't? Really?"

"Has worked so far."

Diana frowned. Despite the many surprising features, the wonders of science and achievement in Patriarch's World, her opinion of modern man kept getting lower.

He shrugged. "The different clothing helps, and the posture and... It's many little things."

"So it's a deception?"

"Of a kind... A necessary compromise, for privacy and-"

"Privacy?"

"In order to live a more normal life among-"

"Normal life?"

"Yes, to live as people do, with-"

"But you are not like other people."

"I can just do more than others, but-"

"And what we do is not linked to what we are?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that-"

"But why would you need to hide who you are? Are you not proud of being-?"

"Please, don't say that here-"

"And you sustain this... disguise all the time?"

"Not always. Uh, just in public, as Clark Kent, when-"

"But you are Clark Kent. That was how you grew up, no?"

"Yes, but-"

"But?"

He sighed. "I said it was complicated, didn't I?"

"How do you stand it?"

"Stand-?"

"The lying."

He actually blushed, embarrassed. "It's necessary. For protection-"

"Why would YOU need protection? You-?"

"For those close to me. Many would... move against me through my friends and family."

"I see." Diana frowned. The Kapatelis house had been attacked once already, and Decay had come far too close to harming Vanessa. "Maybe I am imperiling my own friends, then."

"Most everyone in this... line of work does the same-"

"I don't know if I could do it."

"Well, you're just learning about our culture-"

"If I also wore such glasses and strange clothing-?"

Clark smiled. Diana had her long hair in a simple, unadorned ponytail and wore a flowing robe of vaguely ancient Greek style, which covered her from ankles to shoulders, yet every pair of eyes in the restaurant remained fixed on her, and half a dozen waiters stood nearby waiting for any excuse to approach the table.

"I think you'd need much more than just that."

* * *

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"Princess Diana!"

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"-any work done?"

"What's your stand on abor-?"

"Are you really dating Geor-?"

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"Will you pose for Pla-?

"-they real?"

"WONDY!"

"-fake?"

"SMILE!"

A constellation of multiple flashes and a cacophony of overlapping voices demanding answers to all kinds of questions had met them as they exited the restaurant. Diana smiled shyly for the cameras, while Clark kept back a pace, fumbling with a hand-held voice recorder of his own. Few among the reporters or paparazzi glanced twice at the hunched man with the thick glasses and ill-fitting suit.

"-the Gaza strip-"

"-who does your hair?"

"WONDER WO-!"

Diana lifted a hand up, open and facing outwards.

"Please."

Impossibly, silence ensued after that single word and her firm, imperious gesture. Even Clark was impressed.

"I apologize, but I cannot answer questions tonight. I promised... Mr. Kent that he would have an... 'exclusive'?"

As the reporters erupted in even more frantic questions and demands, she turned to Clark and smiled.

"May I give you a lift?"

Clark frowned, genuinely baffled, and did not fake his surprise as Diana calmly lifted him off the floor and held him up, cradled in her arms.

"Please excuse us," she said, smiling broadly, before she flew up and away.

* * *

"You were surprised?"

"Yeah. Well, I'm normally the one who-"

"Did it bother you?"

"No, no. It's just-It's nothing, really." Superman looked away for a moment, embarrassed again. You could not lift anyone that way without close bodily contact.

"I was trying to preserve your secret."

"Yes, I know. Thank you."

They were high over Boston, flying a few feet apart, and the cityscape was a sea of lights under them, mirroring the starry sky above. Superman had changed into his distinctive outfit, while Diana still wore her robes, which clung to her body, buffeted by the strong wind.

"I love it. Flying."

He nodded, smiling at her. "Me, too."

"It's... pure. Up here."

"Yes."

"I confess I like your cities better from above."

"Is it so different where you come from?"

"Oh, yes."

"Tell me."

She smiled back at him.

* * *

Superman placed the last of the lifeboats on the dock, near the waiting ambulances, and smiled, waving back at the grateful occupants. He flew up, and saw Diana, steadily pulling the damaged cruise liner, towing it with her golden rope. Once again, he was amazed at seeing her in action, at her strength and presence.

There were a few others in the world that could also perform such a feat, but probably nobody looked as good as her while doing it. Then, she went to speak for a while with the people they had rescued, and he actually felt chided. Maybe he was used too much to helping and running, in a sense.

"You're wet," he said, as she flew up to join him. She had dived into the sea to bind the cruise ship with her lasso.

"So are you," she said, smiling broadly. There was a glow to her, he noticed. She had looked like that back after destroying the robo-hound, as if the action made her even more alive.

"I can dry you," he offered. "With heat-vision."

"Really?" Her smile grew in radiance. "Just by looking at me?"

"Uh, yes, it's-"

"Good ahead, then. Look." She spread her arms wide, arching her back and throwing her head back.

He hesitated for a moment, before bathing her in the heat of his vision power. She rotated slowly, soaking the warmth, and making him realize that his skin-tight clothing could be a source of embarrassment.

"I liked that. Thank you." She brushed her hair to a side casually, coming closer. "Now, how may I dry you?"

"Oh, you don't need-"

"Should I get you out of those wet clothes?"

He met her eyes. They sparkled with starlight.

"Ah, I normally just fly higher, towards sunlight."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. Let's do it."

* * *

They reached the upper limits of the atmosphere, and when the sun broke through the line of the horizon, casting its golden low over the Earth's curved edge, they held hands without really noticing.

Both shared the beauty of the spectacle for a long moment before finally turning to face each other.

Then they kissed.

* * *

The TV newscast made Lois Lane look up from her toes and drop the nail polish.

She frowned and pursed her mouth. So Smallville got his interview with WonderBoobs after all. Big deal. It should not bother her at all.

She snorted when the top-heavy bimbo lifted him up like an overgrown baby. Just when you though Kent could not look any more ridiculous. Anyone smarter probably would have coped a feel, but she knew the farmboy better. That there was probably the most action the guy had got in ages, if not ever.

It was all over the networks, and speculations were running wild. Lois shook her head, baffled. People would believe the craziest of things. Really, what could Smallville even talk about with that siliconed cow? She could not think of a more mismatched pair.

It still should not bother her at all.

She grabbed the remote, and shut the damn thing off.

* * *

There were no words that could describe the taste of her, no metaphor fitting the pressure of her against him. His hands moved from her toned arms down to her waist, and he marveled at its slenderness before their embrace vanquished all conscious thoughts. She was both soft and hard, firm and yielding, and he could not get enough of her.

Much later, their mouths separated grudgingly, lips returning again and again for soft pecks, before they finally moved back from each other.

Diana was blushing, and his face felt warm, too. Lana had never kissed like that, he thought, and then felt flustered. It had taken him years to first kiss Lana, back in Smallville, yet he'd jumped on Diana on their very first date. Was he being too forward?

"Uh, Diana... Look, I'm sorry if-"

"Sorry? There is no need. You were not really bad."

"Not really bad-?"

"I liked it, it was just-"

"Just-?"

"Just different."

"Different?"

"From kissing a sister."

"Sister?"

"Oh, we call each other sisters."

"Each other?"

"Amazons."

"Oh, so you-?"

"Yes, but then, Mala had centuries of practice-"

"Mala-?"

"A sister. A friend."

"So you-?"

"Of course. Doesn't everyone learn like that?"

"Learn?"

"To kiss. Did you not start with a friend?"

Superman looked down, embarrassed. He did not feel like bringing Lana up. "Well, yes, but-"

"Though maybe I can still teach you... a bit more."

"More?"

"Yes. Come, I will show you."

His eyes opened wide.

PART FOUR: PEOPLE WILL TALK

"They real then?"

Clark Kent frowned. "Real?"

"Yeah, c'mon, Mr. Kent! She held you pretty close, didn't she? So are they real or not? You must-"

"Jimmy, I can't-"

"KENT! COME HERE!"

"Going, sir."

"But-!"

"SHUT UP, OLSEN!"

"Sorry, Jimmy. Mr. White's the Boss. Oh, hi, Lois."

Lois Lane just grunted a reply, but after Clark had passed by her, she turned to stare at him, frowning. There was something funny about Kent today. Still hunched over as usual in his dated, cheap suit, fidgeting with those ugly coke-bottle glasses, yet she could tell that in some undefined way he was now... different.

She shrugged and returned to work. It was not like she suddenly found him cute or anything.

* * *

"Martha, we agreed to stop buying all those papers."

"He's in there-!"

"He always is! Clark doesn't want us to-"

"Not as Superman! As Clark! And he's with that nice foreign girl!"

"Who?"

"The one with the powers! The Princess!"

"Let me see that."

"You think there's anything going on?"

Jonathan Kent shrugged, putting the paper down.

"Should have told us by now."

"Seemed awfully happy last time he called. Maybe-?"

"Let the boy have his privacy, Martha."

"He should bring her over."

"She does look... nice."

"Too skinny. Clark should bring her for dinner."

"She sure doesn't look skinny at all to me."

"Jonathan!"

* * *

Vanessa Kapatelis sighed. So that geeky reporter got Diana a date with Superman, and they flew all over, holding hands in the clouds, and all that, and it was all so special, and marvelous, and romantic. Whatever.

Sure, she had also found it so cool at first and all. Now, she wished Diana would just shut up about it.

* * *

"Why do I even buy this crap?" Lois threw the tabloid down in disgust. They just keep printing those silly pictures again and again.

It did not bother her personally, of course. Who cared about that balloon-body bimbo or sorry, pathetic Clark Kent? It was the shoddy journalism that pissed her off.

* * *

"J'onn is in," said the man in the dark cowl and cape, standing on the building's ledge. "But many others are new at this. Too many. Maybe you-?"

"Should join? I don't know." Superman shook his head, floating in the smog-filled Gotham air. "Why don't you-?"

"You work better in groups."

"I'm already working with someone now."

"Ah, yes. Wonder Woman."

Of course he would know. "Diana."

"Are you-?"

Superman looked away. "Maybe."

"What we do isn't a game. We should not mix-"

"She can more than hold her own."

Under the cowl, an eyebrow rose. "Really?"

"You should meet her."

"There are more urgent things to do."

Superman looked up, and breathed deeply. "This is... different. She is different. I feel like... I don't know how to-"

The ledge was empty.

Vision powers found no sign of him. He should have heard him leave, too. How did he always do that? The Man of Steel shook his head. He should know better than try to talk about some things with Bruce.

* * *

Mindy Mayer cursed again, and again.

No one had gotten any pictures yet of Superman and Diana together, and the damn girl was not answering her calls. The info had of course been leaked already, but such talk had been tabloid fodder before, and some evidence was necessary. Meanwhile, the damn press was still going on about the crappy pictures with that Kent fellow; as if anyone gave a shit about a nobody.

How the hell was she supposed to work like this?

PART FIVE: YOUR PLACE OR MINE?

He should not be breathless. Had never been. Never before her.

"You learn fast." Diana smiled, and the delicate tip of her tongue licked at her open lips in a playful gesture that made his breath even harder to find.

He looked down, but that meant staring at where her breasts were squeezed together inside her top, almost bulging over its edge as she pressed against him. So he looked back up. "There's a place I want you to see."

"Smallville?"

"Uh, no." Should he introduce her to Pa and Ma yet? Maybe it was too soon. She had not taken him to her island, had she? Was he ready to meet her so-called sisters? Her mother?

"Where then?"

"North."

* * *

There was a place where reality as men knew it held no firm stronghold, where up could be down, and left right. Through that no-space, something that was far more than a man yet somehow less than an idea rushed faster than human eyes could see, with panic at his heels.

* * *

"It's... beautiful."

The crystalline structures rose into the cold air of the North Pole, a picture of a world long gone.

"It's cold," Diana added, placing a hand on one of the giant icy spires that comprised the Fortress. "But beautiful, in its starkness, its purity."

Superman feared his thoughts were hardly pure. He had never realized before just how suggestive all those upright icy spikes looked.

She turned back to him. "But you don't live here."

He shook his head. "I have an apartment in the city."

"To live a more normal life?"

He smiled at her gentle mocking. "I also visit the farm, my parents, as much as I can."

She nodded. "The tree must keep its roots strong."

"Here are my roots, as well. I come here to study my heritage. Here, I am Kal-El, of Krypton."

"Kal-El." She smiled. "I like it."

"I also come to think, to meditate."

"To be alone? Fortress of Solitude?"

"Sometimes that, too."

"Yet you brought me."

"Well, it's more private."

She came close, very close.

"Maybe there's no more need to be alone."

"Are you talking about me, or-?"

"Maybe about the two of us."

Their lips met, slowly, tenderly. At first.

* * *

Danger was coming.

* * *

She pulled back, her breathing labored, her face flushed by excitement. "Kal-El..."

"Diana?"

"Here. Now."

"Here? But-?"

"It's the right place. The right time. I know it." She unclasped her belt and dropped it to a side.

"Diana-?"

She tossed her head, long hair flowing forward, and reached for the back of her tightly-fitting bustier, nearly tearing out the cords lacing it to her body.

"HERE. NOW."

* * *

Darkness was coming.

* * *

He pulled her outfit down her body with almost as much urgency as she showed undressing him. Revealing as her sparse attire had been, only full nudity made real justice to the perfection of her athletic, yet lush figure. He could be intoxicated by just the sight of her, but was allowed no time to stare.

Mouths locked hungrily again, before their hands joined in exploring each other's nakedness. She kneaded his powerful arms and back, while he kissed her long, graceful neck, making her shudder in response. Then, she arched her back and pulled him lower, encouraging him to kiss her breasts, to lick and bite the nipples. She clasped powerfully at his buttocks, long before he dared to move that low, and they grappled for position, for access with impatient need, rising from the surface where they had stood into the air, writhing together with feverish caresses, careening about to slam on one crystalline spire after the other, making the entire structure ring with eerie notes.

Her fingers clasped around his erect manhood, and he gasped as she squeezed and pulled.

"Diana-?"

"Gods, it's so... hard!"

As she tried to move down towards it, he held her back self-consciously, but she shook off his hands easily, with strength he was unused to finding in others.

"And big!"

He flushed with embarrassment. "Err-I'm not-"

"I feared it would be gross," she said, her eyes level with his groin. They were several feet off the ground, with his back to an inclined spire.

"Uh?"

"-But it's... beautiful, too, in its own way."

He would have never called THAT beautiful.

"Like your fortress," she added, stroking him.

"No," he muttered. "You-You are what's beautiful."

"I know," she said, without false modesty. "We both are. " She smiled. "Can I try it?"

"Uh?"

His eyes opened wide as her soft lips kissed the tip of his penis, sending a shiver throughout his body. Her kiss became more involved, open lips rubbing him before her tongue brushed his glans. He groaned loudly.

"You liked that," she whispered. "Good. Now it's my time to learn."

She licked at his shaft then, in long, sensuous strokes that made him tense violently, before her mouth finally opened to engulf his head completely.

"Diana!"

She moved her head up and down along his member slowly, before drawing back, saliva trailing from her lips. With athletic ease, she jumped high and rotated over him, turning head down in mid-air, to move her loins before his head.

"You do it, too."

Clark blinked twice, surprised, before the sensation of her encompassing mouth again drove him to action. Grabbing her hips first, then her thighs, and finally her round, muscular buttocks, he leaned forward to kiss and lick the treasure offered between her spread legs. Her rosy flesh was swollen and moist, nearly glowing in the ethereal light of the Fortress, and her taste was sweet, and tangy, and much more he could not describe. Her ministrations also began hesitantly, but her touch was exciting far beyond mere technique, and she soon found a working rhythm, skillfully matching hands and mouth in concerted effort, making him gasp with pleasure.

Suddenly Diana stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"You need to learn a lot more," she observed.

"Sorry." He blushed, knowing he had been too absorbed in the pleasure she gave him. "I'm not..."

"Don't worry." Her smile grew wider. "I'll tell you how. I had good teachers."

* * *

Darkness arrived.

* * *

"Lick, then suck on my lips, and stroke between them- Yes, like that."

He complied, sucking on her swollen labia as best he could, and moving a finger to slide along the moist channel. He could feel her muscle tension change in response.

"Oh, that's better. Yes. Now rub higher... No, wait. Stop there. Now rub softly there, under that... Yes. Oh, yes... More. YES!"

He had no idea before of how this was to be properly done, he realized with further embarrassment, but by following her instructions faithfully, her breath grew more labored and soon started to moan softly.

"Oh, yes. YES. Lot's better. Harder, yes. YES!"

His lower face was now wet with her fluids, and pleased with his growing achievement, he sought to probe more daringly with his fingers.

"Ow-!" Diana gasped, surprising him. "No, not there. Not yet. Not like that."

He frowned. He had barely pushed against her entrance. "Didn't you-?"

"Just continue as before. That was nice enough."

"But-?"

"My... behind. Do it there."

His eyebrows rose. "In your-?"

"Yes, there."

He obeyed, and after wetting his finger he slid its tip with caution inside her anus. She gasped instantly, and her strong buttocks tightened.

"OH! OOH!"

He began probing her tight opening gently, continuing with lips and tongue on her delicious nether parts, and after further moaning, and apparently pleased with his actions, Diana returned to fellating him.

He groaned, fighting the pleasure, not wanting to stop caressing her like he should, but the most beautiful woman on Earth or elsewhere had him deep in her mouth while he licked her wet sex and fingered her tight ass. That was no way to keep any proper concentration.

The sensation grew until it was nearly painful and he could take it no more. "Diana! No-! Stop-! I can't-!"

Saliva dripped from her full lips as she turned to him. "Did I hurt you?"

"Oh, no! I just-I couldn't-It was too much. I didn't want to- Not yet, I mean."

"Oh, yes." Her eyes filled with understanding but also a measure of apprehension. "Then we must... Move on."

She let go of him, and with some obvious nervousness moved her lower body off to a side and down, rotating to face him, both still leaning against the inclined crystalline spike in defiance of gravity.

"I think I'm ready," she said with just a quaver in her voice, as she began to slowly move up along his body, rubbing him first with her full breasts and then her taut stomach. "I-I have not-"

Her legs were astride him, and first the soft hair of her bush brushed his quivering member, then the base of his shaft felt the contact of her wetness.

"OH, NO!" he gasped.

* * *

She must be found. Wherever she was.

* * *

"Merciful Hera."

"Oh, no. No. No. Diana, I'm-I'm sorry."

"You-?"

"I'm so sorry."

"Oh. Oh."

"This had never happened to me before!"

"Really?"

"I'm-"

"Is this-?"

"Let me clean you-"

"There's no need."

"No-Let me, please. I-"

"It's alright. I was just... surprised."

"Diana, I'm so... so sorry!"

She ran a finger along her midriff, gathering some of the dense fluid, and picked up more before it dripped from one of her prominent breasts. "It's... a lot."

He felt like tunneling into the Earth's core.

"I'll get a-"

"Oh, never mind, I-"

"But I can-"

"I just never imagined-"

"Uh, there's more there, too."

"Here?"

"Yes, there. Uh, in your hair, too. Just let me-"

"Oh, please. I said it's alright!"

"I'm sorry. I tried to-I was just-You were just so- Oh, damn!"

She smiled, and took her coated finger to her mouth. "Mm. Interesting taste."

He stared, speechless.

She licked her lips. "I rather like it."

He stared even harder.

"Now, where were we?"

"But I-"

"Yes, you did. So?"

"But you didn't-"

"Well, we are just starting, no?" she asked, rubbing her hands over her breasts, spreading the milky fluid more than wiping it away. Her eyes drifted down and she smiled. "Oh, you agree."

Suddenly the air exploded into a paroxysm of light and sound, as reality folded and tore, allowing a glowing glimpse of a haggard-faced figure whose trembling hands gripped a long staff with snakes coiling along its shaft.

"DIANA! DIANA OF THEMYSCIRA!"

"Who-?" Superman stared in shock.

"Lord Hermes?" Diana flew up, mindless of her nudity, towards the oversized image shimmering high above her with violently twisting energies encircling it, and casting a deep reddish glow on the Fortress. "What-?"

"Help me, Diana. Help-"

The image was gone and the coruscating energies began to shrink and fade.

"LORD HERMES! I'M COMING!"

"DIANA! WAIT!" Superman yelled as the Amazon Princess disappeared inside the contracting whirlpool of energies. The exchange had been in no language he knew, but he hesitated no further. Gathering both his and Diana's fallen clothing within less than a second, he sprang through the dimensional portal just before it finally vanished from the world of men.

PART SIX: HEAVEN'S REACH

Superman fought nausea as his body and the universe alike seemed to twist into absurd configurations. He tried calling out to Diana, but breath and voice were both physical impossibilities.

Suddenly, he struck and shattered a thick marble column, barely stopping his flight before making a whole building collapse around him. Standing on an irregularly tiled surface, he staggered with disorientation as roofs and floors around him slanted and mixed in irrational angles, with walls, columns and stairs stretching and twisting in unworkable Escherian directions.

"Where-?" He shook his head, but reality refused to settle into normal semblances. Stumbling into what could be called a hallway, he felt gravity itself shift its pull in different directions with each few steps. "Wonder Woman?"

He cast his superhuman vision, but it only brought a new wave of vertigo, as his mind resisted to process the jumbled information of the insane perspectives.

"WONDER WOMAN! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Only silence answered him.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered, and looked down.

Maybe he should get his clothing straightened first.

* * *

Diana of Themyscira ran through a dark, narrow corridor, following an faint echo, a subtle remnant of her summons which she could not articulate. Her Olympian gifts of speed and flight had been bestowed by Hermes, the Messenger God, and even if she must search all of this mockery of once-shinning Olympus, she would not fail to find and help her benefactor and friend.

"Diana."

The whisper was barely audible, but she followed it to a locked dungeon, where a reinforced door flew off its hinges from a single push of her hand.

"Lord Hermes!" she cried out, entering the grimy cell.

"Diana," muttered the once-glorious Olympian. His shriveled form, draped in ragged and burnt remnants of cloth, lay on the debris-covered floor by the fallen Caduceus that his limp hands could no longer grip. "Praise Zeus I reached you."

"My Lord! What is the meaning of this?" She knelt to raise him up with delicate care.

"You come to me unclothed?" Hermes muttered weakly, his eyes sparking with new life at the sight of her uncovered form. "Now? When I'm like this?"

Diana dismissed her nudity with a shrug. "Is not important. But-"

"Oh, cruel Fates taunt-"

"Save your strength, Lord! But how did this-?"

"Not how. Who."

"Who? Someone did this to you?"

"To me. To Olympus. To-"

"For Hera's sake! Who was it?"

"Sorry. Can't help it. Hermetic by nature, you know." He coughed weakly.

"Take whatever you need from me, Lord."

"Ah, such offer, at another time-!"

"Take back your power!"

"You'll need it, child. Against the Dark New God."

"Dark new god-?"

"The foreign invader of fair Olym-"

"Who in Hades could-?"

Hermes coughed again. "Not Hades, but worse, as-"

"WHO IS IT?"

"Yes, yes. Darkseid. Darkseid, see?"

* * *

"Superman is here, Great Darkseid."

The massive figure in the center of the large hall turned slowly, thickly-thewed arms held calmly behind the wide torso, but his eyes, deep-set under the cragged, protruding brow, glowed with unholy red light at the news.

"The Kryptonian. Interesting."

Skinny, stooped Desaad bowed low again before the ruler of Apokolips, involuntarily trembling at the despot's deep, rumbling voice. "He arrived, oh, Great Master, through a temporary rift that-"

"He would not come alone."

"Wise is Darkseid! Indeed not, My Lord. A female came as well, but they arrived at separate locations, likely by the nature of this place-"

"A female."

"The Earthling called Wonder Woman, Great Lord."

"Good."

* * *

"Wonder Woman."

"Superman?" Diana turned and rose, with the now unconscious Olympian in her arms. "You followed me? But-?"

"Anyone would follow you."

"Olympus is under attack!" she explained, placing the limp god with care on a side alcove. "Darkseid, of Apokolips has taken over-!"

"Darkseid is not here now." His eyes ran over her nude body, from her long, muscular legs to the full, round breasts set high on her chest, and his smile grew wider and wider with each inch examined. "But we are."

"Lord Hermes fell before him! You must help me-!"

"I will help you." He strode forward and grabbed her upper arms, pulling her to him. "I'll give you what you need."

"Wha-?"

His mouth fell on hers, roughly forcing his tongue past her lips in a violent, hungry caress, while hugging her tightly with immense strength.

Diana's eyes grew wide open in surprise.

* * *

"Superman."

"Diana?" He turned, and she stood there, where seconds before nothing had been. Was his super-hearing failing?

"I was waiting for you."

"Uh, yes, I can imagine. Sorry." He looked down, not wanting to stare at her at this moment and place, and offered the bundle of her clothes, belt and lasso. "Got sidetracked somehow."

"Oh, yes." She began to reach for the items, but as he released them, she drew back and let them fall to the ground. "Don't really need any of that now, right?"

"Don't you?"

"Do you?"

"Where are we-?"

"We are together," she said, in a soft, seductive voice. "Isn't that all that matters?"

"But... the vision?"

She spread her arms. "What better vision than me do you need?"

Superman frowned, but her mouth quieted his questions.

* * *

His hands grabbed her bottom roughly, each hand somehow seizing all of each buttock, so his fingers dug inside the crevice between each round, muscular globe. Wonder Woman reached down nervously, trying to make him unhand her, but he only squeezed and kneaded her flesh with even more savage intensity, even as his tongue clumsily tried to reach down her throat, almost making her gag.

She twisted her head away, breaking the kiss, and gasped: "Kal-! No!"

He just lifted her up, so her chest came level to his face and his mouth attacked her breasts, slobbering over each one, and lapping the stickiness remaining on them from before.

"OW-! Kal-! Superman, no! Not now! We-OW!"

His teeth bit cruelly one nipple, gnawing on it like a ravenous beast, pulling on it so her breast was tugged forward, and jostled painfully.

"OW! Why are you doing this?"

His grip on her behind grew so vicious it would have torn away a normal woman's flesh.

"Superman! STOP IT!" Could something or someone be controlling him? Making him act like this? "STOP! STOP NOW!"

The backhand slap threw his head to a side, but still he held onto her.

"NO!"

He laughed before biting ravenously on her other nipple.

* * *

Superman drew back from her embrace, unnerved. Diana was always enthusiastic, even aggressive in her kisses, but such furious biting could have injured anyone without invulnerability. ""Diana? What are-?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Her hands ran over his wide chest as she closed to bite his neck.

"But... Who had called you? What did he want?"

"I want you."

"But who cried for help?"

"False alarm."

She bit at his nipple through his costume's fabric.

"What's gotten into you?"

"You will. Deep into me. Very deep."

"Diana, this may not be-"

"Making me come. So hard, so..."

To his surprise, she moved much lower. He was baffled that she would try that again with what had happened. "Diana, I don't think-"

"Don't think, just fuck."

"But-"

"Fuck my face. Fuck all of me."

* * *

Diana struck against his ears with open hands in a deafening clap. He winced and arched backwards, and she pivoted her shoulders to deliver a circular elbow strike at his face. Grunting in pain, he let go of his hold, and she immediately ducked down and turned, grabbing him behind his armpit and by one forearm, so with a powerful twist she threw him over her shoulder to slam hard against the facing wall.

"BITCH!" he snarled, and rushed at her.

Diana dodged, but he turned towards the fallen Hermes, and she was forced to move into his path to protect the helpless god. His fists were easily blocked, but his enormous mass bodily slammed into her, driving both against the wall. Diana winced, but needing to spare the unconscious Hermes from danger, she wrestled her opponent aside and to the ground, away from the alcove. A punch at her midsection made her gasp, and with a wide grin he grabbed and spread both her legs apart, moving between them. But as he fumbled below his belt, Diana grabbed one of his arms, and pulled him closer, while throwing her legs around his head and shoulder. With a grunt, she slammed him sideways with a powerful reversal and arm-bar lock.

"YOU WHORE!" he roared, and his arm lifted the Amazon completely, swinging her horizontally and wrecking a wall into rubble with her back.

Bodyweight leverage was useless at such power levels, she realized, so without releasing his arm, the Amazon Princess kicked out at his face, and twisted over him, reaching out to grab a leg first, and then a different target.

* * *

"No, please, no. Not again," he muttered, stepping back, his face flushing red. Why was it so hard to concentrate?

"Not again?"

"I won't-"

"You won't? Ah, but maybe I will."

"Diana, no." He stepped backwards again, and the wall behind him suddenly became a floor, leaving him facing up as she stood over him, her spread legs allowing for a most embarrassing view. "Uh, Diana-?"

"Let's skip the foreplay."

* * *

Without hesitation, Wonder Woman squeezed. Hard.

* * *

She sat on him, taking everything in one single fluid motion, and her gasp of appreciation rivaled his own. She was hot as a furnace, and her voice rose and fell in high cries and low growls as she rode him, wildly buckling and shaking.

But it was wrong, and Superman grabbed her by the hips, stopping her wanton motion. "No, Diana. NO. Not now. Not like this."

"Oh, you'd prefer it differently?" She laughed, but her laugh was not the sound of joy and freshness he had heard before. "Maybe I should tie you up. Would you like that?"

She arched back and reached for the nearby bundle of the discarded Wonder Woman costume, which lay on its different gravity plane with the coil of golden rope.

* * *

He screamed in pain, but his writhing only increased the agony.

"You are not Superman," Diana stated. "You are not half the man he is. Literally."

* * *

She cried out, dropping the golden rope, and the bright, wholesome loveliness of the Amazon Princess was gone, replaced by a different beauty, angular and hard, draped sensuously by long, dark red hair.

* * *

"YOU BITCH! AAAARGH! YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

"Diana?" Hermes groaned, roused back to wakefulness by the shrill screams. "What-?"

"YOU CURSED FUCKING BITCH!"

"Oh. Remind me never to ask for a handjob."

"AAAAAAARGHHH!"

"Lord, this fiend pretends to be someone dear to me."

"Oh, a glamour. Yet I'm too weak to-"

"I SHALL KILL YOU BOTH! AAARGH-!"

She twisted her grip. "Stop that."

"AAAYYYRH-!"

"Ouch," Hermes said.

"Who are you?"

"-YOU BITCH-I SHALL RAPE AND-!"

She twisted harder.

"YAAAARGH!"

"You may soon lack the equipment for that proposal. I advise you to talk. Who are you?"

"AAAAAYYYGGG!"

"Strange name, that," Hermes scoffed.

"Who are you?"

She began to twist even harder.

"KALIBAK! KALIBAK!"

"Who?"

"KALIBAK! KALIBAK THE DESTROYER!"

Hermes shrugged faintly. "Never heard of him."

* * *

"WHAT-? WHO ARE YOU?"

"You can call me Grace, love." The tall, angular-faced woman smiled, green eyes glinting wickedly while she leaned forward, her hips undulating sinuously over him, her svelte body honoring her name. "Amazing Grace."

"Amazing Grace?" He frowned, confused, and her smile grew even wider.

"Oh, you'll see how amazing I am," she whispered. Like her brother Glorious Godfrey, Grace had subtle mind-twisting powers, and Superman was falling deeper into her sway. "You will never forget that name."

"Get-Get off me."

"You will never forget our fucking, either."

"No!" Superman pushed her off and away, and she fell to the floor of the adjoined gravity zone.

"That's no way to treat a lady," she snarled.

Superman frowned, pulling his clothes back into place. "You're no lady."

She bared her teeth. "Kryptonian dog, you dare turn me down?"

"I'm glad to do it, Grace. Now, why are you here?"

"Can't you realize what you're missing?"

"Is Darkseid involved?"

"The best fuck of your life! The best!"

"Where is Wonder Woman?"

"You'd rather have that fat-titted cow?"

Her appearance changed again, but Superman could now notice all the glaring differences, the many small but vital things that were missing: the way Diana moved, the gentleness in her voice, and the clear look in her eyes.

"I can give you another chance," she rasped.

"ANSWER ME, GRACE!"

"Catch me, love, and I may give you answers! Or more!"

* * *

"I'M KALIBAK!" His features and body blurred, and were replaced by a crude face framed in coarse, leonine hair and a monstrous, oversized figure clothed in thick leathers and metal. "KALIBAK! SON OF DARKSEID!"

"Really?" Hermes squinted. "Can't see the resemblance."

"YOU DARE-?"

"That's what your mother claims?"

"I'LL KILL Y-YAAAARGHH!"

Diana turned to Hermes. "If we have Darkseid's son, maybe he will-"

"Doubt anyone values this one much."

"YOU DOG! I SHA-AARRRGHHHH!"

Suddenly a crimson flash of light filled the dungeon, and Diana felt her hand close on nothingness.

"He's gone!"

"Can see that, yes."

"Stay here, Lord! I'll catch him!"

"Won't stray far, sure."

* * *

Still in her false appearance, Grace ran through the twisting, labyrinthine pathways, and Superman cursed the place's strange physics, which rendered his flight and speed of little advantage.

She disappeared around a strange bend, and he followed.

* * *

Diana rushed through the corridors, until a gateway leading outside the dungeons came before her. Without hesitation, she flew straight through it.

* * *

"YOU!"

"YOU!"

"STOP THERE!"

Wonder Woman grabbed a fallen chunk of marble column and threw it with missile-like power.

PART SEVEN: NOTHING HAPPENED, NOTHING

"Good," Darkseid said.

In the holographic display, Superman swatted aside with ease the marble projectile. He stomped a foot and the floor shook, unbalancing Wonder Woman.

"Monitor her, Desaad."

"Oh, yes, yes, My Lord!" The Master or Tortures looked up from his control devices at the image of the young woman, his twisted smile growing into a leer.

"Monitor her power. The Kryptonian will task her, make her reach her limits."

"Oh, yes, My Lord. Task her. Reach her limits, yes."

"She will then try to draw upon her patrons for further might."

"Oh, yes, My Lord. I can imagine what her limits are. Yes, yes I can..."

"Thus will be found those so-called gods, those craven false deities, hidden in righteous fear of Darkseid's wrath."

"Oh, yes, yes..."

"And these Olympians will be shown a god's true face, before their crude power is taken and consumed."

"Oh, yes, show, show so much..."

"Shut up, Desaad."

* * *

Her punch threw Superman careening through a full wing of the distorted palaces, demolishing it.

He stood up, shrugging the debris off, and smiled.

"Diana."

Wonder Woman flew to him and landed within two paces.

"Kal-El," she stated, smiling as well. "It is you."

"You too."

"Someone impersonated you just before-"

"Really?" He frowned. "You too."

"Not very convincingly, though."

"Really?"

"Oh, yes. Big, big difference."

"Oh." He looked down. "Mine... she-"

"I had to be sure, but I knew this time it was you."

"Me too. There's... beauty, even in how you fight."

"And there is nobility in the way you hold back."

He blushed. "When I can hold back-"

"Oh, please, will you forget about that?"

* * *

Desaad glanced nervously at Master of Apokolips, who stood silent. "Um, My Lord-?"

Darkseid spoke calmly: "Send the parademons."

* * *

He shrugged off multiple blasts of destructive energies.

"So what did Kalibak... try to-?"

"Does not matter," Wonder Woman said, diving through a throng of snarling parademons and scattering them.

"But did he-?"

"I was not fooled."

"From the very start? Or did he-?"

"Kal-El! Please!"

"Uh, sorry."

* * *

"Send more. Send all of them."

* * *

Superman smashed the assault battleship into the ground.

"So he didn't-?"

"PLEASE! I'M FIGHTING!"

"Yes, sorry."

His heat vision melted the nozzles of one attack station after the other.

"It's just that-"

"Just WHAT?" Wonder Woman grunted, swinging a fighter craft with her lasso, against the formation it had led.

"I'm just worried that-"

"Oh, please!" She deflected an energy pulse with her right bracelet. "I can take care of myself!"

"I know, but-"

"Yes, he tried to! But I-HERA!" She ducked under a barrage of enemy fire, and rushed to counter-attack.

"But you-?"

"But I stopped him, of course!"

"Yes, of course."

"I am an Amazon! You think I wasn't prepared to handle something like that?"

"No, no. Sorry." He melted the weaponry on the hands of a battalion. "Just at what point did-?"

"Hera's Tits! He just kissed and groped me-!"

"HE DID? I'll-!"

"-And then I fought him off! Just like I'm sure you did, too!"

Superman looked away from her, and armored plate gave under his fists.

Wonder Woman turned to him. "You did, right?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Fine."

"But-"

"But?"

A parademon raised his arms in exasperation. "FUCK! AT LEAST LOOK AT US WHEN YOU'RE-!"

Superman swatted him unconscious.

Wonder Woman insisted: "BUT?"

"She kissed and... groped me, too... Then she-"

"Kal-El, did you fuck that woman?"

Another ship crashed in flames.

"No, but she tried to... She began to-"

Three dozen parademons were knocked from the sky by a thrown wreck.

"She did. Did you do it to her?"

"No!"

"Fine, then."

"It's just not that simple."

"IT IS! EITHER YOU FUCKED HER OR YOU DID NOT!"

"I didn't! But-"

"FINE! I BELIEVE YOU! NOW BY TYPHON'S SHIT LET ME FIGHT!"

"Enough."

Instantly, the vast armies of Apokolips stopped at the deep voice of their master.

"Darkseid?"

The thickly-built tyrant stood on a wrecked terrace. "Enough of all this."

The swarms of heavily armed parademons and many other grotesque creatures bowed low and began to move back.

"Why-?" Superman began.

"Nothing is to be gained here."

Wonder Woman frowned. "But your assault on Olympus-?"

Darkseid cast his gaze around him with clear disdain. "Real estate is of no interest to Apokolips."

"But-?"

"The Olympians were, but they hide, as the frightened children they are."

Diana's mouth opened in outrage.

"Their Messenger was left alive to draw them out. Then you, their avatar, were allowed to be summoned, to lead to them. But it seems you are not so easily used."

"I am not. Ask your son."

Darkseid lifted a hand to silence her. "Speak not of such irritations." The Apokolipsian despot then looked at Wonder Woman, his red eyes narrowing in his cracked, granite-like face. "You are not the usual avatar for provincial deities, woman. Your powers are linked to the forces the Olympians manifest, not just to them in particular. It is... interesting."

The despot's stare on her was like a physical pressure, an almost crushing load, yet Diana did not flinch, and her bright blue eyes locked on his, defiantly.

Darkseid did not break the visual contact. "If the Olympians fear my power so much as to abandon their own kind and abode, to so cowardly hide into the depths of other realities, then they are not worth more of my attention and time."

"So you just-?"

"Be thankful," he warned. "The chatter between you two was beginning to irritate me as well."

Superman clenched his fists, but Wonder Woman gestured him to stay back.

"Whatever your affront, peace is preferable to war, Lord of Apokolips." She smiled. "We accept your unconditional withdrawal. You may go."

A shudder of fear ran through the entire Apokolipsian armies, and for a long moment Darkseid's eyes, glowing with blood-red puissance, remained locked on Diana's.

Then he laughed.

Desaad stared in disbelief. Few had ever spoken with such a tone to Darkseid and even survived. Few had ever made him laugh, also.

A broad smile spread on the tyrant's grayish face. "One day you may see fit to serve a higher power, young woman. One worthier of your faith and courage than your petty godlings." The glow in his eyes grew much, much brighter. "Perhaps Darkseid will welcome you that day."

With thunderous noise, multiple dimensional tunnels known as boom-tubes opened, and Darkseid and his minions left Olympus.

Hermes limped into view. "Don't you just hate it when they talk about themselves in the third person?"


	2. Book 2: The Omega

PROLOGUE: SPOIL THE CHILD

"I WANT HER!"

Darkseid, absolute ruler of Apokolips, stared silently at the cold and forbidding expanse of his domain, at the smoke-spewing factories and overcrowded slums covering most of the planet's surface, lighted by the reddish glow of the ubiquitous giant fire-pits, a whole world that lived or died at his whim, deprived of choice, deprived of hope. The power of choice in Apokolips was Darkseid's, and his alone; the power and the burden.

"YOU PROMISED, FATHER!"

The crack-coursed, grayish-hued visage did not change. "Nothing was promised."

"YOU DID!"

Darkseid turned his red-glowing eyes to the vast, Spartan hall at whose center Kalibak stood, whining, as usual; Kalibak the Petty, Kalibak the Pest, Kalibak his son.

"You said she would be MINE!" Spittle flew as Kalibak raved, joining many other fluids in his face-framing mass of coarse hair. His hands gestured wildly, seemingly out of synch with the rest of his enormous, over-muscled body. "YOU DID!"

Contempt was defined by the tone of the tyrant's words. "Go play with yourself, Kalibak."

"If he can find it," Amazing Grace muttered softly. The red-haired, long-limbed woman wore a thin smile as taunting as her revealing outfit of thin purple strips of cloth and leather straps. "No easy task, that."

"SEE! SHE MOCKS ME! THEY ALL DO!"

Kalibak was becoming harder to ignore. He had to kill the annoying brat one of these days. "So what is different?"

"AFTER THE AMAZON, THEY ALL LAUGH AT ME!"

Darkseid turned away again. "They cannot be blamed."

"I MUST SHOW THEM! I MUST SHOW HER!"

"Can't show anyone much, anyway," Grace added.

Darkseid stared at the smog-filled sky, where no star could shine. "You were told the Amazon could be yours, to deceive, to seduce."

"YES! YOU SAID THAT!"

"And you failed."

"SHE CHEATED, FATHER!"

"She defeated you. Easily. As planned."

"WHAT?"

"You were expected to fail. And you did. As always."

"WHAT?"

"Such was your sole role to play."

"WHAT?"

"Are there echoes here?" Grace asked.

"You were but a pawn in Darkseid's plans, Kalibak. Always were. Always will. Never forget that."

"YOU SAID SHE WOULD BE MINE!"

"Darksaid did not."

"DID, TOO!"

The tyrant came close to sighing, too close. He really had to kill the brat.

PART ONE: ABOUT LAST NIGHT

"You did not call."

The muscular man in skin-tight red and blue turned to see the tall, dark-haired young woman addressing him. She was clad in her gold-plated, strapless red corset and brief star-patterned bottom, and like him, she stood in the air above the Atlantic Ocean.

"Diana, I... I should've, yes." Superman lowered his sight from her bright, blue eyes, and the gigantic oil tanker he held up high over the waves, vibrated just slightly as a flush of embarrassment ran through him. "I've just been busy."

Wonder Woman glanced up at the malfunctioning vessel that he held aloft with ease. "Do you need help?"

"I've got it, thanks."

"I could have helped."

He shook his head. "I know. I'm sorry. I just-"

"You did not want to see me?"

"No. I did. I do. It's not that."

"What is it, then, Kal-El?"

"I should take this to the dock."

"I will fly with you. If you want me to." There were many nuances to her words.

He just nodded.

* * *

"I MUST SHOW HER!"

* * *

"Is it what happened in the Fortress?"

Clark Kent made a hushing gesture with his eyebrows behind his thick glasses.

Diana frowned. "Must we keep up this... this charade?"

"You know that-"

"The secret... all that. Yes." She glanced about, her annoyance evident. The two sat at a low table on an open terrace overlooking uptown Metropolis, coffee untouched before each. "Why not speak somewhere else? Somewhere private, where you can be... yourself."

"I'm always myself, Diana."

"Are you?"

"I AM Clark Kent, too."

She shook her head. "You seek to fool others, Kal. Do you also want to fool yourself?"

"I told you-"

"Do you seek to fool me, too?"

"This is who I am, too, Diana. A part of it. It's not-"

"I found you ... in very different garb, after you had been avoiding me."

"I hadn't-"

"Yet to speak, you chose to change into that... disguise. What am I to take from this?"

"I just wanted to-"

"You hide behind those clothes, those... glasses."

"It's-"

"You want to hide from me as well?"

"I don't know, Diana. I was just-"

"Yes?"

"Uncomfortable."

Diana looked to a side, at the Metropolis skyline.

"Was it too fast?"

He blushed. "I'm so sorry that-"

She frowned. "Not that. Us."

"Oh," he looked down. "I don't know."

"I am still unfamiliar with your customs. I felt it was the right moment. I thought you felt the same." She looked down. "Maybe I wanted it to be."

"Diana-"

"How long should we have waited?"

"It's not-"

"In Themyscira, when we feel like this about another-"

"Diana, it's not that."

"What is it, then?" She looked up, and her eyes were moist.

He felt his stomach twist in a knot. "It's not you. It's me."

"What?" Her eyes shifted, from regret to anger.

"It's me, really."

"You mean-? Kal-El, are you...? Are you moving away from me because you... Just because you-?"

"I just feel bad about what-"

"I told you it was nothing! For Hera's sake, I did not mind it!"

"You say that, but-"

"I do not lie! I am not the one living lies!"

"It would be wrong to pretend nothing happened, too. How can you forget that just as-?"

"Oh, please! It's nothing important! It was just... normal!"

"Normal?"

"I could wait!"

"Wait?"

"I even liked it!"

"You-you liked it?"

"You can do it anytime again if you want!"

"Do it again?"

"It was just foreplay! We were just starting!"

"Foreplay?"

"So you finished before we began to really... So what?"

"You think-?"

"I was nervous, too, I understand. And it was actually exciting in a way. It actually made me more-"

"Oh, Diana, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be. We would just have continued if Lord Hermes had not called to me. So it was my fault really that we did not-"

"It's not... that, either."

"What?"

"Now I'm really embarrassed about it. Always was, yes. But-"

"WHAT IS IT, THEN?"

The waiters frowned at them, and Clark hunched over.

"It's what happened with... the woman."

Diana stood silent for a moment before continuing.

"You said you did not mate with her."

"I did not, if you-"

"Then it is nothing. Kal, I believe you, and it is nothing important. I told you so before."

"But I... I was... inside her, Diana. For just a moment, but... I was."

Diana frowned, before continuing. "She deceived you. You though it was not-"

"Yes, but-"

"And you did not... go all the way."

"No. It was just a few seconds."

"Then it does not matter."

"But I, for an instant-"

"You were tempted?"

He stared at her, and nodded. "We... We had just been together. Then that woman... That I even felt... I... It tarnished everything. I'm sorry, Diana. I'm so-"

"You are so silly."

"What?"

She smiled. "You are so silly; I don't know what to do with you."

"Diana-"

"Was she beautiful?"

"Not like you."

"But she was desirable?"

"Yes."

"She was desirable and she tricked you into starting intimacy, even into penetrating her. I am sure she knew well what to do. And as you found out, with her on you and you in her..."

"Ah-"

"Of course you felt tempted."

"Of course?"

"Don't be dumb. I understand."

"You... do?"

"You were in an intense, sexual situation with an attractive partner. What you felt was just natural. It is normal. We are sexual beings, after all."

"Sexual beings?"

"I am sure anyone would feel the same."

"Anyone?"

"Anyone. It's natural. And you barely did anything."

He did not look up. "Went further than we did."

She smiled. "She was luckier. That, I am jealous about."

"Do you really-?"

"You must stop being so hard on yourself. Even if... Even if more had... I mean, it was just sex."

"Just sex?"

"Can we forget about it all now?"

He frowned, pondering for a moment. "And you?"

"Me?"

"Were you tempted, too?"

"Oh, please."

"Did this Kalibak-?"

"Don't be ridiculous. He was a clumsy, hateful brute."

"And if he were different?"

She stared back, silent for a short while. "If he had been skilled, and seductive, you mean?"

He looked down. "Yes."

She smiled. "I would always know it wasn't you."

"Ah. And you wouldn't-?"

"I would have still stopped him. He was an enemy. And I wanted you."

"But... Would you have felt... tempted?"

She hesitated. "Maybe. You did, didn't you?"

He did not look up.

Diana breathed deeply. "I... feel about you, Kal-El. I wanted you to be the one, the one who... I just... wanted you. That doesn't mean I may not feel attracted to others, or... yes, tempted. But I wanted you. I still do. It just doesn't make me deny whatever other feelings I may have. It's just not so important-"

He frowned. "Because it may be just sex?"

She shrugged. "You said this Grace woman tempted you. So why couldn't I-?"

"But I feel bad about it! That's why I'm sorry! That's why I'm-!"

"And look what good that has done us." She shook her head.

"But you-"

"You feel guilty about a very normal, human reaction, and I say I understand. Then suddenly this is all again about me?"

"It's not-"

"I don't feel guilt about such conjectures."

"When if it's more than conjecture? What if I-?"

"Even so! You give it an importance that-"

"Diana, it is important."

"I see. What if I had actually been fooled by Kalibak?"

"Diana..."

"What if we had fucked?"

"Diana!"

"How would you look at me, then?"

"That's not-"

"How would you judge me?"

"I... I don't- You wouldn't have known-"

"What if I knew, yet it still happened?"

"You wouldn't do that."

"Maybe not. What if he had forced me to-?"

"He couldn't. You would never let-"

"What if it did happen anyway?"

"It would not be your fault."

"Maybe not. Maybe it would. Maybe I was just tempted. Maybe I gave in to it. What then?"

"Diana, please."

"Maybe I was excited, maybe the man I wanted could not wait for me and just came all over my body and face before we had even started, and I was just desperate to have sex. What if I then gave in to temptation?"

He blanched. "Diana, I'm sorry. I know you wouldn't-"

"WHAT IF I DID?"

She closed her eyes, before continuing in a soft voice.

"Would you also see me as... tarnished?"

Superman looked at her, confusion and pain in his eyes. "No. No. I don't think-"

"You don't think-?" She stood up.

"Diana..."

She strode several steps and then turned. "By Hera! How can you expect me to submit to this ridiculous, self-hating idea of morality? This shame founded in distrust? How can you do it yourself-?"

"DIANA!"

"Will you let your life be ruled by such prejudi-?"

"LOOK OUT!"

She stopped, startled, as he sprang towards her with super-human speed, arms outstretched, just as the twin lines of twisting energies cutting the air in maze-like patterns before converged on her.

Light flashed blindingly, and they were there no more.

PART TWO: STOWAWAY

"WHO IS THAT?"

Clark Kent shook his head and turned about, barely registering the strange, alien environs before seeing the menacing, overgrown brute known as Kalibak, and in a far more chilling discovery, the serene, yet imposing figure of Darkseid, eyes still glowing with just released puissance.

"Darkseid?" Wonder Woman strode forward, her whole demeanor shifted into combat readiness. "What do-?"

Kalibak roared again. "WHO IS THAT PUNY MORTAL?"

Clark stepped back, in apparent terror. It could be advantageous to remain unrecognized as long as possible.

"IS HE THE AMAZON'S SLAVE?"

"You asked for the woman, Kalibak." Darkseid's voice was an emotionless monotone. "The Omega Force brought her to Apokolips. Ask not about her baggage."

Diana's eyes opened wide. "Apokolips?"

Clark stared about, feigning fear, but not without a true core of apprehension. In the vast hall, half a dozen of the Apokolipsian Elite stood, and he could sense the armies of parademons swarming outside. All this besides Darkseid.

"Well, there she is, Kalibak," the red-headed woman in revealing purple said mockingly, her long strides taking her near the new arrivals. "Weren't you going to show something to someone?"

Diana's eyes moved to her, and raised an eyebrow.

"Amazing Grace, I suppose?"

"Yes, dear girl. You heard of me?"

"More than I wanted."

"WOMAN!" Kalibak's voice thundered as he crouched low, like a wrestler, with wild eyes fixed on the Amazon Princess. "YOU WERE LUCKY BEFORE!"

"I was?"

"I UNDERESTIMATED YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR DECEPTIVE BEAUTY! BUT NOW YOU WILL KNOW THE FULL MIGHT OF KALIBAK!"

"I will?"

"I SHALL DISMEMBER YOUR WEAKLING COMPANION BEFORE YOUR EYES, AS FOREPLAY TO MY RAVAGING YOUR LUSH FLESH!"

"Lush flesh?"

"Don't ask me," Grace said. "Always speaks like that."

"YOU'LL DIE OF PLEASURE AS I RAVISH YOUR CONQUERED BODY!"

Diana smiled. "With what I found you packed? Doubt it."

Grace laughed, as did most of the Elite.

Kalibak roared in fury and charged at Wonder Woman, hands that could rend steel reached for her neck.

The blow resonated throughout the hall, and the whole building.

* * *

Grace snorted. "So much for showing us."

Wonder Woman removed and threw aside the loose, thin robe she had worn over her gold-plated red and blue attire. Walking to the unconscious Kalibak, she placed a booted sole on the fallen creature's head.

"You brought me here just for this, Darkseid?"

The Lord of Apokolips frowned, and a shiver ran through his entourage.

"You were spared once already, woman. Beware lest your courage become foolishness."

A skinny, stooped man in a hooded robe approached, his eyes glancing nervously at Wonder Woman as he spoke: "The woman again defies the Lord of Apokolips, Oh Great Darkseid. Should an example not be made of her, Lord?"

"Darkseid does not need suggestions, Desaad."

The icy response made him step back and bow to the ground, yet he insisted: "The Amazon once again brought low Kalibak the Destroyer, now in My Lord's very abode!"

"Kalibak asked for it."

"My Lord, is Kalibak's shame not also that of Apokolips? Also that of his own-?"

"Desaad, an example could be made of you."

"Uh, Wonder Woman," Clark whispered, approaching Diana. "Maybe you shouldn't-"

"SILENCE, MORTAL." Darkseid's voice rose like a rumble of falling rocks, before settling into ominous softness. "The Amazon was chosen to be here. You were not."

"Darkseid," Diana began.

"You may be the lesson she needs."

"You wanted me, not him-"

"Exactly."

Deadly energy erupted from Darkseid's eyes.

The Omega Force was unleashed.

* * *

"BEHOLD THE POWER OF DARKSEID, GREAT LORD OF APOKOLIPS!" Desaad yelled in shrill tones from a kneeling position on the floor, as dark smoke wafted through the hall, and eyes fought to adjust after the furious flash of red annihilation. "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE OMEGA FORCE! A POWER THAT CAN ERASE NOT JUST A CREATURE'S LIFE, BUT ALSO THE UNIVERSE'S VERY MEMORY OF ITS EXISTANCE-!"

Grace waved smoke away. "Stop kissing ass, would you?"

Darkseid stood silent, and his silence spread to all present when the fumes finally cleared.

A huge, smoking gap now exposed the hall to the outside. Walls, roof and floor alike had been torn away into the foul air of the Apokolipsian night. On the floor, near the start of the wedge of destruction, was the body of the unconscious Amazon Princess, all of her clothing blasted into nothingness but for her golden lasso. An outstretched arm was at the very point of expansion of the damage, and on that wrist, only melted fragments of metal remained of what had been Wonder Woman's bracelet. Of her companion, no trace could be found.

The Elite stared in shock, until Grace dared to speak at last, her voice hushed in awe: "She survived. She survived the Omega Effect."

Desaad shook his head in disbelief. "She-She was not the target. It was not patterned against her. Only-Only because of that, did she... did she..."

"She stood before the Omega Force, and survived."

All eyes turned slowly to Darkseid, and the undisputed ruler of them all spoke softer than ever. "Apokolips shall take this Wonder Woman as its guest, Desaad. It is time to know her better."

PART THREE: CHECKING THE SIGHTS

He stumbled through the trash and debris littering the dark passages which could hardly be called streets.

He remembered something bad had been about to happen, and he had steeled himself for it, but something had come between. Someone had. Someone who needed him. If only he could recall who. But he could not, just like he could not recall who he was. He just knew it was important he got back to that someone. Very, very important.

If only he could recall why.

* * *

Servants placed the limp, unconscious young woman on a floating platform, her long limbs clasped by thick cybernetic restrains.

"To my labs, dogs," Desaad rasped, his eyes fixed on the prone Amazon Princess. "Quickly!"

"Desaad."

"Order your servant, My Lord!"

Darkseid faced away, his arms held characteristically behind him in a contemplative posture, gaze lost on the open view to the skies of Apokolips.

"She is not to be harmed."

Desaad's face became even paler, and his thin mouth tightened.

"As... My Lord orders."

Darkseid nodded, before adding: "Not yet."

Desaad's grin grew into a grimace of hideous mirth. He bowed low, muttering many formal words of thanks and self-debasement, before exiting the hall with the platform in tow. His eyes returned with glee to the bound Amazon, and once they had moved deep into the dark corridors of the citadel, he reached out and brushed the rosy circle of a nipple's aureole with one bony, trembling finger.

"Pretty... so pretty."

* * *

Armored creatures herded the ragged, emaciated people with flashing whips and cruel words. An old man fell, and was trampled. No one even noticed. But him.

He called out, and strode forward, fists clenched.

He may not remember his own name, but he still knew when something was wrong.

* * *

On the hall's floor, Kalibak stirred, moaning weakly.

"-Show her... -Show them..."

Followed by his Elite, Darkseid walked out.

He really had to kill the brat someday.

* * *

Their weaponry hurt, but did not kill him, and their armor gave before his hands. Yet he knew he should have been stronger. Something had weakened him. Drained him.

From its shattered armor, a hideous creature jumped at him, and he stumbled, struggling against its fluid shape.

Voices cried out, in a language he did not understand.

"THE FIREPIT!"

"THEY'LL FALL INTO THE FIREPIT!"

Heat. Impossible, unimaginable heat claimed him.

PART FOUR: HOSPITALITY

"So pretty..."

Desaad's fingers twitched nervously as he reached for the controls. Darkseid wanted the Amazon unharmed for now, but for the Master Torturer, there was a lot of leeway before you reached actual bodily harm. Lots and lots of precious, delicious leeway.

His index finger shifted slightly over a sensor field and the young woman's body shook violently in response. The energies coursing her frame rose in power as Desaad measured her full range of sensation, her vitality and receptiveness, playing her pain like a virtuoso artist.

She was his priceless instrument.

Sweat covered his brow. The readings were astounding, making his heart beat faster and faster. She was even better than Barda. Better than anyone. So much better than anything he had ever dreamed about.

She was magnificent.

He could discover whole new dimensions of suffering on her luscious, perfect body.

* * *

He crawled out of the fire, slowly, painfully, and rolled down the sloped of the raised crater, before finally collapsing in the trash-littered mud.

Slowly, shadowed figures approached him.

* * *

Powerful tractor and pressor fields pulled at the firm, flawless flesh in many shifting directions, sometimes delicately, sometimes violently, while sensor arrays scanned and measured each minute sensation, casting its data through the interface grafted onto Desaad's brain. He could literally taste her pain. And it was a feast.

The Master Torturer gestured, and mechanical probes of bizarre configurations approached the young beauty's bound body. He could perform with fields everything that the crude implements did, but there was a simple, primal appeal to actual material tools and traditional brute power.

He was old-fashioned that way.

* * *

"-Survived the Fire-Pit!"

"Nonsense!"

"He did!"

"Nothing can-!"

"Fought the troopers, too!"

"He did! I was there!"

"-And won!"

"I was there, too!"

"Even beat Pacifiers!"

"Leave him!"

"It's no-"

"Must turn him in!"

"YES!"

"WE'LL BE REWARDED! WE'LL-!"

"-BE KILLED!"

"NO!"

"WE SAW IT! WE'RE WITNESSESS! WE'RE DOOMED!"

"NO! IF WE TURN HIM IN OURSELVES-!"

"IT'S USELESS! DARKSEID IS! THERE'S NO MERCY! EVER!"

"She will know."

"She?"

"SHE-?"

"She will."

"Yes."

"YES!"

"LET'S TAKE HIM TO HER!"

* * *

"What is your command, Lord Darkseid?"

"Come, Granny." The tyrant strode down the corridor without bothering to glance at the stocky, sour-faced woman. "There is a task for you."

Granny Goodness, Headmistress of Darkseid's Orphanages, Trainer of Hounds and Commander of the Furies, formally bowed her white-haired head. "As Darkseid wills."

* * *

Large, irregular knobs were raised all along the thick, metal length. Mighty motors made a low, rumbling noise as the bulbous head began to press forward, between the soft folds of rosy flesh carefully spread apart before it by mechanical pincers.

Mouth dry with expectation, Desaad adjusted the power of the mechanical probe. The pervasive mind-scrambling field rendered the bound Amazon Princess unconscious, but not unfeeling, as her sensations were the liquor Desaad now drank greedily.

Her mouth twisted in a grimace and her body tensed, as the probe suddenly drove forward with brutal power.

And was stopped.

Desaad furrowed his nose and raised the probe's power. The motors' rumble shifted to a high whine, then a loud, deafening scream. Cursing between clenched teeth, he pushed the power up by a thousand-fold.

Hardened Apokolipsian metal shattered like glass.

Desaad stared with astonishment at the ruined device. The human girl was strong beyond what he had suspected, but such amazing resistance was unprecedented.

An absurd idea suddenly gnawed at his mind, and he set sensors to scan her anew with infinitesimal precision.

His eyes bulged, and he found trouble breathing.

Surely it could not be.

Yet it was.

* * *

"-And won!."

"He did! I was there!"

"I was there, too!"

"Even beat Pacifiers!"

The woman's voice rose soothingly. "You did well."

Anxious faces stared at the hooded figure in the dark, rank-smelling basement.

"You all did well."

Contentment spread through the Lowlies crowded in the narrow space, with her words being repeated to those in the corridors outside.

"He is special," she said, leaning to touch the face of the unconscious man, and brushing aside the dark curl of hair over his brow. "He may be the one we have so long waited for. He may be The One."

"The One?" Multiple voices echoed the words with low, hushed tones, full of fear, fear of the very likelihood of hope.

"Leave him. I will care for him."

Most of them lingered, nervously, unsure of what to expect, what to believe, what to fear. But eventually, all left, their voices fading slowly in the corridors, leaving the soot-stained unconscious man cradled in the lap of the slender, rag-dressed woman. Under her dirty hood, her face, framed by stray locks of red hair, grew a wide, pleased smile.

* * *

Desaad's hands trembled with child-like excitement.

He needed something bigger and tougher. Much, much bigger and tougher. Enough to punch right through a planetary object. Enough for her.

He would build it. He would tap the Firepits directly for power. He could see it already, in all its sheer, irresistible might, unstoppable, relentless, and perfect. A perfect tool for the perfect subject.

"Perfect. Like her."

He could almost cry with joy.

"What was that, Desaad?"

The Master Torturer turned about, startled. "Uh?"

"What did you find, Desaad?"

Granny Goodness walked uninvited into his laboratory, and Darkseid himself stood ominously at the door.

"You will inform your Master, won't you?"

"Of... course." His pasty face grew even paler.

"Of course." Granny glanced at the multiple implements surrounding the bound prisoner, and smiled with disdain. "Ah, Desaad. Such pathetic little toys."

"I was... examining her!"

"And what did you find? What warmed your cold heart, Torturer?"

"She is... exceptional."

"Anyone could see that."

"The Olympians... endowed her well."

"Oh, it's obvious she's well-endowed, Desaad." Granny's eyes narrowed. "What else?"

"Her strength, resistance, responsiveness... All her... attributes exceed everything we've known!"

"Everything?"

"She surpasses even Barda!"

Granny frowned. "Impossible. Barda was-"

"Barda was nothing! She-!" He shook his head. "This one is unique."

Darkseid spoke at last, his voice soft in its gravely depth. "Unique. Yes."

"I must have her, Master!" Desaad cried out suddenly, falling to the floor and crawling to kiss the tip of Darkseid's high boots. "Please, Oh Great Darkseid. Please!"

Granny laughed. "Such interest!"

"I must! Please-!"

"What else did you find?"

"PLEASE, MY LORD!"

"WHAT ELSE?"

"PLEASE!"

"Desaad." Darkseid's whisper held doom in it, and Desaad trembled and moaned, drowning in his master's cruelty.

"She is... She is..."

"Desaad."

"-A VIRGIN! THE AMAZON IS A VIRGIN!"

PART FIVE: WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

"A virgin?" Granny Goodness echoed in disbelief. "What nonsense is that?"

"She is!" Desaad insisted. "Even unconscious, she'll protect her maidenhood! She-!"

"Impossible! She's fully developed already-!"

"I swear it!"

"Are there no able males at all on Earth? Of any kind? Such a prize shouldn't have lasted unclaimed past her first bleed!"

Darkseid walked past both Desaad and Granny, to stand by the Amazon Princess.

"She is unsullied."

"So Desaad claims-!"

"I SWEAR IT, MY LORD! PLEASE, I BEG YOU-!"

Darkseid's eyes did not leave the bound young woman. "Desaad, she is not yours to claim."

The Torturer whimpered like a child. "My Lord..."

"Go among the Chosen. Pick any you want."

Granny gasped. "Lord Darkseid! Your concubines-?"

"Any dozen."

Desaad looked up, uncertain. Was the tyrant toying with him? "Any dozen?"

Darkseid's attention remained fixed, and there was a hint of a shrug in his posture. "Let them be of some use for once."

"The Master has spoken!" Granny snarled.

Desaad fell again to the floor, muttering formal words of gratitude. Yet his eyes remained cold.

Darkseid turned around, his expression as stoic as ever.

"Prepare her, Granny. That is your task."

The woman looked up, her hard face surprised.

"Then she...?"

"She does."

"Praised be Darkseid!" Granny knelt and bowed her head low. "My joy for Our Lord has no bounds!"

Desaad remained silent.

"Get her ready, Granny. Soon."

"Soon?"

"Immediately."

"Her mind is strong," Desaad muttered. "Very strong."

Darkseid nodded, still facing away. "It is."

"May be impossible to break."

Darkseid's tone shifted slightly, into nuanced menace. "It is not to be broken."

"Will not be twisted easily, either."

"Darkseid accepts no excuses."

"My Lord," Granny began. "It will take time-"

"Work together. Use whatever is necessary."

Desaad and Granny turned to each other, their mutual hate nearly palpable.

* * *

Her fingers moved over his chiseled features first, followed by the solid pectoral muscles, and then the ridged abdomen. Further explorations further below rendered no different results.

His sleep was so deep it could be mistaken for death, but she knew better. He was spent, depleted by his ordeal, his very survival miraculous. But he would regain his strength. He would be mighty again. She would make sure.

* * *

A virgin.

So said the rumors.

Kalibak roared and the slaves started to die by the dozens in the training pit.

A virgin.

It would be fitting, then. She had shamed him, before his people, before his father. She had taken his honor. So Kalibak would take hers.

Kalibak would show her.

They all whispered his father had secret plans for her, but then, he always did. Everyone was a pawn to him.

But Kalibak would show him.

Kalibak would show them all.

* * *

The screams held no pleasure anymore.

He savored the pain of each of his victims, and found each wanting. They were bland, insipid. They would all break soon, and he could predict exactly how and when for each one, with mathematical precision.

Unlike her. So unlike her.

Desaad stared at his screens vacantly. All pain had lost its meaning. Unless it was hers.

* * *

He felt weak, so weak.

Emptied. Of strength, of memory. Of being.

Only her voice soothed him; her voice, and her touch.

* * *

The playing card-sized sentient device sang a tune of harmony.

He knelt in near-perfect stillness, hands flat on the powerful thighs, broad back bearing many long, raised scars, testimony of his upbringing. Like a statue of male muscular perfection, his mighty frame appeared poised precariously between the peace of the warrior trance and the tension of brutal, meaningless violence.

That was his essence.

"Orion."

He raised his head, thick, coarse red hair a curtain before intense, deep-set eyes. Mother Box's song faded slowly.

The beautiful, slender blonde glowed bright with his own radiance. "It is time," Lightray said.

The kneeling powerhouse nodded, and stood, his muscles like threaded metal cords bearing impossible stresses.

"Time to go Home," muttered dryly Orion, War Dog of New Genesis. Orion, Son of Darkseid.

PART SIX: FAMILY REUNION

"NO!"

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"FUCK! IT'S ORION! ORION!"

"ORION? Oh, fuck. FUCK!"

"NO! NOT ORION! NOT HIM!"

"THE RENEGADE IS UPON US!"

"PERIMETER IS BREACHED!"

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

"KILL HIM! KILL- AARGH!"

"AAARGH!"

"Shit. Orion. We're so fucked."

"YAAAAAAAARGH!"

* * *

The battle harness manifested Orion's wrath, and his astro-force wrought havoc with the defenses of Apokolips, amidst curses, cries and death-gasps.

"We are here to rescue the Earthlings, Orion, not to massacre Darkseid's slaves!"

Orion grunted.

"Go easy on then, will you?"

Orion grunted.

* * *

"The insolent cub nears." Darkseid's granite-like face betrayed no emotion. "Be ready."

Granny bowed. "As Darkseid wills."

* * *

Alarms rang throughout the slums of Armaghetto, and buildings shook with the echoes of distant battle.

Then he awoke.

"Where... What...?" His shoulders tensed and he tried to sit up.

"Shh... Not yet. Stay down." The svelte redhead at his side spoke softly, her smooth hand caressing his troubled brow. "It's not your concern."

* * *

Unbearable light exploded from Lightray and control devices in battle vehicles and ground defenses alike went dead.

Orion made the most of the opening, and many wrecked armaments and lost lives later, he broke through the last defenses of Darkseid's citadel.

"Father, I'm home."

* * *

"But... people... the people...?"

"Some thousands will die. They always do. There's always more, too."

"No, no."

He struggled to raise, to clear his head, but the pull of unconsciousness was nearly irresistible, and whatever she was doing was not helping.

"I... I must do... must do... something."

"Yes, but not that," she moved over him, removing her tattered robes.

* * *

"SCUM OF NEW GENESIS!"

"GLOMMER'S SNOT!"

"HIGHFATHER'S TOOL-POLISHER!"

"Get lost," Orion spat, and advanced.

The troops, led by Bedlam in one of his myriad host bodies, shook in fear, but they did not dare to break ranks. Orion was certain death walking towards them, but Darkseid was Darkseid.

They charged, yelling in unison. "DARKSEID IS!"

Orion shrugged. He had tried going easy on them. He really had.

* * *

He frowned and squirmed. It was not right, he knew. But he could not focus, could not discern what to do. All he could understand now was that she was warm and soft, and in certain places, wet, so very wet.

* * *

"Mantis-!" Lightray gasped and fell to the floor.

"Feed me, Bright One! FEED ME!"

Orion saw the insectoid-armored energy-leech looming over Lightray, first of Darkseid's Elite to face them. Wordlessly, he tore out a massive chunk of wall and threw it with well-trained accuracy. The improvised projectile struck Mantis and slammed him against the farthest wall.

"Eat that," Orion grunted. He slung Lightray gently over one shoulder, and before leaving, demolished the far columns, bringing the area's structure down.

"Have dessert, too."

* * *

She had readied him, with hands and lips and tongue, delighted at seeing at last his response, before straddling him with unusually real urgency. Never had she needed to wait so long for any partner, and the anticipation made him so much more desirable than any other male she had ever known.

* * *

Orion. Orion was here.

Kalibak smiled.

He would destroy the traitor. He would prove who the real scion of Darkseid was. To Orion. To Darkseid himself. To everyone.

He would show them all.

* * *

"BETRAYER OF YOUR KIND!"

Orion's scowl was his sole greeting to Granny Goodness, as he entered the broad hall, with the unconscious Lightray still on his shoulder.

"Have you come to beg forgiveness? Do you bring that New Genesis dog as an offer of contrition?"

"The Earthlings. I come for them."

"The Earthlings? Why would you care about them?"

Orion shrugged. Both Metron and Highfather insisted that the Kryptonian and his companion were important for Earth's survival, and that was enough for him. "I owe you no explanations."

Granny laughed. "Are you Highfather's errand boy now? Do you deliver his parcels?"

Behind his helmet, Orion's eyes flashed with anger. "Better than being Darkseid's barter currency."

Granny bared her teeth. "Destroy him."

The Female Furies surrounded him: Bernadeth, Lashina, Guillotine, Stompa, and Mad Harriet, Granny's best warriors. Having to care for Lightray while he fought, it would nearly be a fair match. Nearly.

* * *

His size and hardness were surprising, and she was not easily surprised on such matters. Even his diminished power was almost too much, but she managed.

She rode him, moaning and grunting, with unfeigned delight, and in his near-unconsciousness, he lasted so long that she raced from one loud climax to the other.

"OH, YES! YES! YES!"

She would manage again and again.

* * *

Orion stepped over the fallen Furies.

"Training must be slipping, Granny."

Granny Goodness grasped her Mega-Rod, knobby knuckles whitening, but another voice interrupted them.

"TIGRA'S MALFORMED SPAWN! WILL YOU FIGHT MORE THAN WOMEN AND OLD... Uh, WOMEN?"

Orion nodded. "Kalibak."

The monstrous, leonine-haired warrior strode forward, deadly Beta-Club held in one oversized hand.

"WILL YOU FIGHT YOUR EQUALS?"

Orion swept the hall with his gaze. "Equals? Where?"

"UNMANLY BASTARD! YOU THINK YOU'RE SO DAMNED SMART? YOU THINK YOU CAN MOCK KALIBAK? BUT I WILL SHOW YOU! I WILL SHOW YOU WHO THE TRUE HEIR OF DARKSEID IS!"

Orion spat on the floor. "You can keep that title."

"I WILL SHOW YOU ALL!"

* * *

"Yes, yes! Go on, love. Come. Come inside me!"

Part of him rebelled, refused to cooperate. But that part was nowhere in control.

* * *

Orion kicked aside Kalibak's weakly-twitching body.

"He gets more pathetic every time."

"He does."

Orion looked up and met Darkseid's eyes.

"Father."

"Ungrateful whelp."

"I want the Earthlings."

"You have no power to make demands."

Orion removed his helmet, and approached Darkseid. "Nothing I want more than ending our cursed lives, Father."

"Nothing is a greater disappointment than you, whelp."

"But surrender the Earthlings, and our final fight may be another day."

"You come here, bearing that... shame on your shoulder, and still you make threats?" Darkseid turned from him. "You have yet much to learn."

"Damn the Earthlings then, and face me-!"

Someone struck Orion down, so fast he hardly saw the movement before he smashed face first into the floor, the whole edifice shuddering from the impact. He twisted violently, teeth bared in a snarl of murderous fury, his anger beyond what even his Mother Box could control. But then he saw the most beautiful female face he had ever seen, with blue eyes full of outrage and frustration and a desperate longing for release, eyes full of such conflicted emotions that it was like staring into a mirror.

A fraction of an instant later her fist struck him, again and again and again.

* * *

"YES! YES, MY LOVE! COME, COME IN ME! OH, YES! YES!"

* * *

Orion crawled to shield the fallen Lightray, cursing himself for lowering his guard. The blows continued, and waves of ominous cracks spread on the floor slab under him after each brutal impact. In strength, she rivaled Kalibak, but her martial skill and precision far exceeded what his half-brother could ever muster. Furiously, he strove to block and duck, to strike back, but each attack that got past his defense diminished his ability to fight, driving him closer to defeat.

It could not be. Surprise or not, in all Apokolips, only Darkseid himself could conceivably best him in hand-to-hand combat. He spat dark blood and raised his head.

"Who-?"

She stood tall before him, long-limbed and gracefully curved, in spike-lined, high-heeled black boots. Also black was the thin strip over her pubis, and the tight, jeweled leather corset clasping her narrow waist and trying in vain to confine her prominent, high breasts. Dark hair fell in loose curls over her strong, wide shoulders, and her long neck with its black choker led to that same beautiful face he had seen, with those disconcerting bright blue eyes in stark contrast to a mocking smile.

"Meet Diana, Renegade," Granny laughed. "Diana, New Leader of the Female Furies."

A booted foot struck his face viciously.

"Diana, Princess of Apokolips!"

Darkness began to claim him, but he heard the last, shocking words.

"DIANA, BETHROTHED OF DARKSEID!"

PART SEVEN: ARE WE THERE YET?

"-Much longer to The Citadel?"

The pock-marked Lowly looked up, warily. "The Citadel-? By this transport-?"

The hooded one nodded, somehow appearing to be far less cramped than everyone else in the crowded underground carrier.

"Two days, Darkseid willing," the Lowly muttered, gripped by fear. Had he been singled out? Was he being tested? He knew he should not have listened to all the nonsense about that so-called Savior everyone was talking about.

To his relief, the hooded one just turned to his big companion, speaking softly in a strange dialect he had never heard before. They must be from far away, he guessed; some distant minor Orphanage past The Wastes. The big one would likely try for the Citadel's Forces, as many of the Gifted did. This one may even make it. Under the robe, the all-covering, rusted armor looked like scavenged-scrap, but even to the Lowly, there was power and confidence to how he moved.

The smaller, hooded one turned back, and smiled, with what appeared to be actual cheerfulness.

"Thank you."

The Lowly trembled again, with the fear of that which is not understood.

* * *

"We hunger! While the Elite party! Uninterrupted! Orgies of food, drink and flesh that last for days! Yet we're denied even the scraps fed to their dogs!"

Sullen, distrustful faces surrounded the woman as she tried to rouse the crowd.

"But we are not dogs! We are people!"

Grumbles rose around her.

"Maybe Darkseid can kill us-"

A voice interrupted: "BIG FUCKING NEWS!"

Laughter spread.

"-But he cannot rob us of hope!"

"FUCK HOPE!"

"YEAH!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"YEAH! I'LL HELP WITH THAT!"

She ignored the jeers. "Hope shall set us free!"

"FREE YOUR BOOBS!"

"Free from misery! FREE FROM DARKSEID!"

"ENOUGH!" The voice resonated in the dark basement, and a squad of armored troopers began to make their way to the speaker, mercilessly clubbing the panicking Lowlies in their path, with the stock of their weapons.

"TAKE THE BITCH!"

The tall man covered by many layers of rags did not understand the language spoken then, or before, but he understood the threat in the troopers' actions. He threw aside the dirty robes and moved forward, in a flash of red and blue.

* * *

"Two more days. Too much."

"Can't just fly there, you know."

"We should have arrived closer to the-"

"Could not risk detection."

"Couldn't we-?"

"Subtlety, dear. Misdirection. It's all about-"

"Subtlety my ass."

"And what an ass that is."

"You say that to every slut."

"For you I mean it."

"Orion and Lightray failed."

"We knew it could happen. We planned for it."

"Now we must get them out, too."

"We will."

"I hate it. So much can go wrong."

"That's what makes it exciting, dear."

"You're fucking enjoying this?"

"It's a challenge."

"Challenge? It's suicide. This is Apokolips! Have you forgotten-?"

"Oh, it's fun to sometimes come home."

"Home my ass."

"Is that a request?"

"There's no way we'll... It's just impossible."

He smiled, with the smile of a man who had dwelt in the deepest of hells, yet had never forgotten hope, or laughter. The smile of a man who would always be Free.

"Would be a miracle, no?"

* * *

The gathered Elite cheered, and jugs of hallucinogenic drinks were raised in Diana's honor, again and again, as the celebration raged on.

By her side, her beloved sat, in all his intense, yet serene glory. She draped her body on his powerful arm, and felt the thrill of having him look her way, with his commanding, irresistible eyes.

"Now," she whispered. "Let us do it. Here. Before them all."

He stared at her for a moment before replying. "Soon."

"When?" Her voice was a hungry growl. "I can't stand it much longer. I need it. I need you."

"At the right time. After the rituals are over."

"Why must we wait?"

"The fires must be stoked."

"I burn for you already!"

He stared at her, again, frowning. "Soon."

* * *

Desaad sat silently at his place in the grand table. His food and drink remained untouched. His eyes were on her alone.

* * *

She pouted at his words, but knew that soon she would be his at last, his completely, like everything was, like everything should. She should revel in her luck. Yet why was there a strange queasiness on her stomach?

The shrill pings in her head rose in volume and her questions faded, but did not vanish.

* * *

"The Word is spreading," she said, loosening her long, red hair. "Soon all Armaghetto will share the Faith."

He stared as she undressed. Her beauty was striking, as always, yet he could not dismiss his misgivings.

"I-I don't know. I just-"

"What troubles you?" She wrapped her arms around him, her alluring fragrance at odds with the bare misery of the cubicle and their rotten clothes.

"Helping the people, fighting the troopers, that feels right. People deserve better. They should... be free. Free." He shook his head. "But... this, this Savior role? I want to do as much as I can, but-?"

"Don't worry about it." She rubbed slowly against him. "You are The One. The Savior. They will follow you."

"Follow me? But where? How-?"

"We shall find the answers together." Her teeth worried his earlobe. "The two of us."

"But... Why can't I understand anyone but you? And why can't I understand you when you speak to them?"

"I'm your Prophet, my love. It is fitting." Her hand grasped him. "Oh, this will fit so well, too."

"Please." He moved back, uneasily. "I want to-"

"You don't want me anymore?"

Her eyes were a picture of broadcast hurt, and a faint, yet lingering sense of failure echoed in him, an elusive memory of having deeply disappointed someone for whom he cared, something he never wanted to repeat.

"Of course I do."

* * *

She spoke, with vehement conviction, and the people no longer jeered or moved away. They stayed, and listened. And their eyes lighted up. He could not understand the words, but he understood that light.

It was hope.

* * *

"PASSES!"

"We aren't-"

"PASSES!"

The soft pings rose in volume. "You don't-"

"PASSES OR YOU DIE!"

"Ah, fuck it. Move aside, Honey."

"WHO-? Uh, you're a fema-?"

The crack still echoed in the narrow corridor as the guard fell to a heap, head twisted all the way around.

"Was that necessary?"

"It was that, or fucking him, and we're short of time for that."

"You're no fun."

* * *

The Lord of Apokolips stood on the balcony, as was his custom, when Diana came to him, the noise of the furious revels continuing at her back.

"Maybe we can be alone here, My Lord." She threw aside the long black fur cape, and loosened her corset's straps.

Darkseid shrugged, not turning around. "Others are unimportant."

"Then let's do it, now, here."

"Soon."

She dropped by his feet, and hugged the massive trunks of his legs, hands running on the black high boots to caress his exposed upper thighs, the thick muscles harder than rock. "Isn't now soon enough?"

"After the rituals are over."

"What need have we of formalities?" Her hands grasped at the fabric near his groin's bulge, and she anxiously pulled it aside.

Startled, she stumbled back, eyes wide open in shock.

"MY LORD! I had never-!"

He looked down, and there was annoyance in his voice. "Darkseid needs nothing."

She looked up, her eyes still full of true amazement. "But I do! Even more now that I've seen-"

"The rituals are just... convenient."

She moved closer again, her attention now riveted to his loins, drawn by the massive presence which seemed to create its own irresistible gravitic pull.

"Please, my Lord, just let me... touch it, taste it."

Darkseid did not reply, and she hungrily dove at his monstrous endowment, her mouth seeming at first utterly inadequate for such a daunting task.

"Oh, My Lord! It's so-! So-! MMMMM! MMMF-!"

Darkseid stared in silence at the beautiful woman on her knees before him, devoted with near-desperate zeal to the worship of that larger-than-life icon of male power at his groin.

"Enough," he said, minutes later, pushing her away, to her bafflement. "You were told to wait."

"But My Lord-?"

"After the rituals."

"But why-?"

"You will do as you are told."

"Why can't I-?" Pained, her eyes moved up from the indifferent target of her fruitless efforts. "Why didn't you-? Don't I please My Lord? Don't I-?"

Darkseid's voice boomed, even in the open balcony. "YOU WERE TOLD TO WAIT."

He turned his massive back to her, and after a second of dazed disbelief, she rose and strode away.

* * *

People stared in awe as the one in blue and red beat the Troopers with ease, forcing them to fall back in disarray, their weapons abandoned for the taking.

It had not been a lie, they saw. The Savior was real.

The woman with him yelled his name, promising freedom and riches to those who followed his lead.

People picked up the weapons, and for once did not run off to pawn them off, but instead lifted them into the air, and joined their voices to the growing chant.

SAVIOR. SAVIOR.

* * *

Darkseid felt her leave the balcony in confusion and anger. His gaze returned to the dark skies, and he frowned in annoyance.

It just was not the same.

* * *

"Hear! They call out your name!"

"My name?"

"Yes! They will follow you, their Savior! To freedom!"

"My... name?"

"TO FREEDOM!"

* * *

"Shit! SHIT! I'M STUCK!"

His index finger rose to his mouth, but the frame of the ventilation outlet was already flying off the wall, to bounce noisily on the corridor's floor.

He shook his head. "Dear..."

"I was stuck!"

"Oh. Are you getting thicker, honey?"

"FUCK YOU!"

"Oh, well, so much for subtlety."

"They've been celebrating for days already. Surely no one's awake enough to hear us."

"Still, dear..."

"You already took out the security systems."

"It's about style, dear. You-"

"HEY! STOP THERE!"

The two intruders turned towards the guard patrol.

"Some can really hold their booze, see?"

"Fuck you, Smartass."

"KILL THEM! ASK QUESTIONS LATER!"

Blaster fire rained on them.

* * *

She had begged, but he would not relent, and her best efforts had yielded nothing. Nothing.

The ceremony was to be that very night, but the fires that raged in her, demanding attention, demanding release, knew no further patience. The noise in her head rose deafeningly.

"I am here to see the prisoner."

"My Lady, the orders-"

"I am Darkseid's Betrothed. YOU DARE DENY MY WILL?"

* * *

Burned rags and discarded old armor littered the floor, alongside the bodies of the security patrol.

He dropped nimbly from the overhead crevice, his outfit of garish yellow, red and green now fully visible. Gracefully, he walked towards the tall woman in the blue and gold armor. Her Mega-Rod still glowed.

"Now, THIS is my style." Big Barda, former leader of the Furies and fellow Apokolipsian renegade, smiled smugly at her husband.

"Sure, dear." Scott Free, son of Highfather, put on the mask of his Mister Miracle costume, and stepped on his anti-gravity disks, his Mother Box pinging softly. "We should split up now, dear. You go find Lightray and Orion."

"Fuck you. No way you go after the Amazon bitch alone."

"Temper, temper."

* * *

The Lowlies of Armaghetto rose, in anger, in hope. Starving, diseased, taught fear since birth, they still followed the one called Savior, to face the merciless forces of repression of Darkseid, braving sure death on the strength of an idea: Freedom.

Amazing Grace discarded her rags with satisfaction, looking forward to hot baths and silken finery. She deserved that and more. She had successfully driven the Kryptonian to lead these Lowlies, these Hunger Dogs, into full-out revolution.

Darkseid would be pleased.

PART EIGHT: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Torrents of sweat ran over Orion's straining, unclothed body. The devices binding him filled the vast dungeon with their massive, energy-coursed components, and he crouched in their grasp, fighting to break their hold, teeth clenched with effort, and all-consuming anger.

"You cannot break free," she said, walking towards him with sensuous, taunting grace.

He did not reply, but his grunts grew louder.

"It is His Will that holds you."

"Fuck him and his will," Orion grunted. "Fuck you, too."

She stepped back, startled. Deprived of his Mother Box, Orion's face had grown lined, and his features coarser. His brow protruded massively over deep-set, fierce eyes, and his jaw seemed sculpted in stone.

"You are His son," she muttered.

"Fuck me, too, then."

"If you ask nice enough." She moved closer again.

He scoffed his disdain.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"You are His Son. Why do you challenge His Will?"

For an instant, Orion stopped straining, and his eyes dug into hers.

"That is who I am. That is what I do."

"But why?"

"Because someone must."

"But you are His Son!"

"Such is my curse."

She looked down, and her eyebrows rose in appreciation. "Cursed? Oh, no... You are nowhere cursed."

"What the fuck do you know?"

"You are gifted."

"Gifted?"

"Very gifted. You are indeed His son."

"Let me tell you what Darkseid gives his-"

"Irresistibly gifted," she rasped, and grabbing him by the hair, pressed her open lips to his.

* * *

Having left Barda to cover his retreat, Mister Miracle navigated Desaad's dungeons with watchful care. One did not become the universe's greatest escape artist by being overconfident, and sidestepping the Torture Master's deadly security measures was a worthy task. The week was not a waste after all.

He deactivated the final traps, and carefully removed from their restrains the captive Mother Boxes, their soft pings greeting his own. The poor things had been worried sick.

Now he just had to find everyone else.

* * *

It was dark, so dark.

Lightray of New Genesis stirred weakly in his bounds. The healing aura of Mother Box was gone, and hideous, complex devices drained his power, his light, and his life.

He felt the darkness consuming him, claiming him, and almost welcomed it. He had failed Highfather. He had failed Orion. He had failed New Genesis.

Surely it could not get any worse.

Yet it did.

"You are a pretty one," Granny Goodness hissed, as she ignited reddish plasma torches.

Lightray looked up weakly, and gasped at the horror.

* * *

Orion spit on the floor.

"Should've torn your tongue off."

"Yet you didn't, Son of Darkseid." Breathing heavily, she finished loosening her corset, and her large bosom jostled free before his eyes. She pressed his face against their cushiony fullness, before moving down to nibble at his corded neck.

Orion pursed his mouth. "Go bother someone else, wench."

"Oh, are you bothered?" Her tongue moved down his sternum, between his bulging, rock-hard pectorals.

"You just waste time."

"Really?" She licked at the lower outline of his chest.

"I have no interest in you."

"Really?" She licked at one of his nipples.

"In you, or your kind."

"My kind?" She bit on the small nub.

"Your charade is useless."

"We shall see." She licked down the ridged slope of his rock-hard abdomen.

"You just bore me."

She reached down, and smiled. "Something here does not seem bored."

He frowned. That was unusual. Was he drugged?

"Did my father set you up for this?"

"In a way, He did." She settled on her knees before him.

"What he expects out of this? That I change my ways? Follow his path just because one of his whores throws herself at me?"

"I expect Him to react."

"Him?"

"You are already reacting, though. A lot."

Orion grunted, straining again against his bounds. "Get away, bitch."

"You have a different message down here." Leaning forward, she surrounded his growing erection with her full breasts, pressing each around it.

"Stop that."

"Very, very different." Her teats slid up and down around him, rubbing him with their smooth, yielding flesh, soft yet firm at once.

"STOP THAT!"

* * *

He had to risk open corridors once more, and a patrol happened upon him. The guards were twice as massive as standard parademons, and wore highly impervious armor, probably proof against most of the devices hidden in his Mister Miracle costume.

It was a pity. He hated fighting hand-to-hand. It was just crude.

* * *

"My Lord, the orders-"

"YOU KNOW WHO I AM! YOU DARE DENY MY WILL?"

* * *

"STOP THAT, I SAID!"

She licked her lips. "You cannot bid me to stop."

He frowned for an instant, before snorting in derision. "I see."

"You do? Do you like what you see?"

"You are beautiful indeed, woman, despite my father's dark stain."

"You really say the nicest things."

"But you want me no more than I do you. You're just angry."

"This tells me you want me enough." "And you want Him angry, too."

"Do I?" She licked at his swelling glans, and he shuddered. That was very unlike him. There was indeed something about this female. "Maybe. Maybe we both want it. Siding with New Genesis against him? Just be a child's tantrum, a cry for attention."

"You are also frustrated."

"Not for long." She engulfed him again with her mouth.

Orion tensed. "You can't get him hard, can you?"

"What?"

"You tried, and he doesn't react."

Her eyes blazed, and Orion smiled bitterly. "It's his nature. Wants to control everything, master everything."

"He does-!"

"But he just loses more and more! For all his power, he just becomes more distanced from life, from all that binds us to others!"

"Darkseid needs no one! He-!"

"Does not need you, then."

"That is not the same!"

"Throughout millennia, few can ever raise his interest."

"You lie!"

"And those, he ultimately destroys! Only two ever kept him potent enough to bear his damned seed!"

"YOU LIE!"

"The Anti-Life Equation? Just a means to make his impotence universal!"

"LIAR!"

"HE IS THE ANTI-LIFE!"

"SHUT UP!"

"ONCE I DESTROY HIM, I'LL ENSURE HIS LINE IS FOREVER GONE FROM CREATION!"

"HOW? BY BEING CELIBATE?" Snarling, she moved over him, long legs wrapping around his waist. "LET'S TEST THAT!"

Her lips met his again, forcing them open, as she used one hand to guide him into position.

"BITCH!" His voice was a growl.

She growled with equal fury: "BE MY DOG, THEN!"

He felt her wet folds against his swollen head, and as his angry eyes met hers, he saw again what had made him lower his guard before, what made them alike. He understood.

"You, too, are trapped inside. Fighting. Fighting him. Fighting his will. Refusing to accept what he wants you to be."

"WHAT?"

Kalibak struck then.

* * *

Mister Miracle sidestepped nimbly, and the last guard fell in a loud clatter of armor and weaponry. While he lacked the powers of other New Gods, none had ever mastered Granny's combat training better. Despite the differences in strength, he knew every move the guards might make, and could counter each with ease.

"Scott Free. I was waiting for you."

"Did you, Desaad?" Mister Miracle acknowledged, warily turning about to face the Master Torturer.

"We're two sides of the same coin, Son of Highfather."

"No shit."

"I will not stop you this time."

"Like you ever could."

"I have something for you, instead."

The master escape artist frowned. Figuring out traps was his nature. But this time, neither he nor Mother Box could sense any tricks in Desaad, any duplicity in the offering held on his outstretched hand.

There was only Truth.

PART NINE: AND ONE SHALL LEAD THEM

The Hunger Dogs of Armaghetto approached the tall walls of Darkseid's citadel with stolen weaponry in their hands and unprecedented hope in their hearts. Before their immeasurable numbers, and the might of the one in red and blue who led them, the parademon hordes fell.

* * *

"KALIBAK!"

"AMAZON WHORE!"

Orion's warning came too late, and the surprised woman was pulled by her hair off him, to be thrown with brutal strength against the dungeon wall.

"I WILL SHOW YOU!"

"DON'T YOU DARE-!"

"I DARE EVERYTHING!" Kalibak's foot struck her bared midsection with bone-crunching power, before his hands found her throat.

"You fool!" Orion spat. "Darkseid wants her! You-!"

"YOU RAPED AND KILLED HER, BROTHER! OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND! WHATEVER! THAT'S ALL OUR FATHER WILL KNOW!" Kalibak's huge hands tightened around her slender neck with inhuman might. "I FOUND AND KILLED YOU TOO LATE TO SAVE THE BITCH!"

"ARE YOU MAD-?" Orion's muscles tensed and the devices binding him groaned loudly.

"SECURITY SYSTEMS ARE NOT WORKING! THE SLUT'S SALIVA ON YOU WILL TELL HOW SHE SEDUCED YOU, BROTHER! AND YOUR CORPSES WILL SAY THE REST!"

* * *

"Why?" Scott Free asked, taking what Desaad offered.

The Torturer wiped his hand on his robe, with dawning relief.

"I... I need pain to make sense again."

"Uh?"

"I need her gone. Gone. From here. From my mind."

* * *

Orion roared his futile fury. "YOU BASTARD-!"

Kalibak's laughter at his half-brother's impotence was suddenly cut short, as his victim's long legs drew up against his midsection, before throwing him to a side with skillful ease. He tried to retain the grip on her throat, but she grabbed one of his thick wrists and threw her legs around his extended arm and over his chest, while falling backwards and to a side, her body perpendicular to his. Against the fulcrum of her hip, his elbow snapped with a loud, wet snap.

He screamed in pain, but her fist struck his throat, turning his shrill yell to panicked gasps.

"SO YOU WILL SHOW ME?"

She pummeled Kalibak's face with unrestrained fury, her ferocity surprising even Orion.

"SHOW ME THEN!"

Kalibak gasped weakly.

Her hand reached below his waist.

"SHOW ME!"

With single pull, she tore off most of his leathery pants.

"SHOW ME NOW!"

* * *

"SAVIOR! SAVIOR!"

Spurred by the shouts of the people he rushed to the attack.

* * *

"SHOW ME, DAMN YOU!"

Kalibak gurgled unintelligibly, and his eyes bulged in surprise, as she seized him, much like once before, but this time to pull and pump his manhood with furious intensity.

"SHOW ME!" She fell on him, to rub her large breasts around his still unresponsive member, before moving up to straddle him, positioning her mound right over his limp manhood. She began then to rock and grind against his loins with furious urgency, her wet folds sliding over his flaccid length.

"YOU WANTED TO RAPE ME? RAPE ME THEN! RAPE ME!"

Kalibak wheezed and groaned faintly.

"COME ON! RAPE ME! SHOW ME! SHOW EVERYONE!"

Kalibak's face alternated colors from bright red to chalky white, but instead of becoming erect, his penis actually shrunk even smaller.

"DAMN IT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS FAMILY?"

Rising off Kalibak, she grabbed his coarse hair and threw him against the dungeon's wall, embedding him in a mass of metal plates and twisted pipes.

"Don't kill him."

She turned to Orion, her eyes blazing with anger.

"He deserves worse, but you... you don't really want to kill him," Orion insisted. "Not the real you."

"Maybe I should kill you all." She approached him, a twisted smile in her face. "Erase His disappointments to start anew."

"Ah, excuse me?"

Diana turned to the open dungeon door. "Who?"

Scott Free tilted his head to a side. "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

* * *

It felt right.

Death surrounded him. People died by the hundreds as they stormed the tyrant's defenses, yet despite all the carnage and suffering, it still felt right. He was fighting for freedom, for hope.

* * *

"NEW GENESIS SCUM!"

"Princess Diana, I presume?"

"HIGHFATHER'S DUNG!"

Walls shattered and debris fell everywhere.

"Oh, you are strong!"

"DIE!"

"Really strong! And pretty, too."

"DIE, DOG!"

"Very pretty!"

"WILL YOU DIE?"

"You remind me of my wife, Barda. You've met her?"

"STAY STILL!"

"You should! Really!"

"STAY STILL, DAMN YOU!"

"It would be... interesting! Oh, you're fast!"

His antigravity disks fell to the floor, and she held him by the wide lapels of his cape. "YOU-!"

"SCOTT?"

"Oh, there she is."

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

"See, that's Barda. My wife."

"WHO THE FUCK?"

"She's Diana, dear. The Amazon Princess."

Diana frowned. "Amazon?"

"WHAT THE DAMN FUCK YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"Now, dear, I'm trying to communicate-"

"LET HIM GO, BITCH!"

"OR WHAT?"

"Dear..."

"YOU ASKED FOR IT!"

"Oh, boy."

* * *

Loud noises and screams were typical in the dungeons, even without Desaad at work, so she paid them little heed, but as the banging started anew, Granny Goodness noticed that the tremors were actually shaking all of the basement structures.

Was that dog Orion breaking free? She decided to take a look, and to Lightray's utter relief, exited his cell.

* * *

"BITCH!"

"WHORE!"

"FAT SLUT!"

"MAGGOT'S PISS!"

"Scott Free."

"Uh? Ah, sorry, Orion."

"Can you release me?"

"Of course." Mister Miracle ducked the flying chunks of masonry and metal shrapnel, moving towards Orion. "My apologies. Was busy... watching, you know."

"Yes. Both Barda and her are formidable warriors."

"Yes, that too." He glanced again at the struggling women, before kneeling by Orion's side.

"No one is getting the upper hand." Orion observed. "Barda's bigger-"

"Oh, yeah. Do I know."

"But the Amazon's faster. She may even be stronger, but her mind's clouded -Damn, look at that!"

"Oh, am I looking."

"They're well matched!"

"Yeah, and damn, I disabled all the cameras before..."

"Lightray?"

"Will get him next. Let's see... Interesting bonds. Ah, just let me..."

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

"Who?"

"GRANNY!" Orion snarled.

"Oh, fuck," Scott Free muttered, his mouth twisting in disgust at the sight of the stocky old woman dressed only in spike-lined leather straps that let most of her wrinkled, sagging flesh exposed. "Not again."

"BARDA? SCOTT FREE?"

"Granny, up to your old tricks again? Who's the poor sod now?"

"TRAITORS!"

"Damn. DEAR, WATCH OUT!"

The Power Rod in Granny's hand spat fearsome energies that struck Barda in the back.

* * *

While their red and blue-clad leader single-handedly destroyed fearsome assault vehicles and armored giant juggernauts, the Hunger Dogs overwhelmed the Citadel's ground forces, turning the captured weaponry against the flying parademons squads.

Darkseid saw all, and smiled.

* * *

Barda gasped and fell, groaning in pain.

"KILL HER NOW, DIANA! FOR DARKSEID!" Granny yelled, turning her power rod against Mister Miracle, who somersaulted over the incoming blast.

"Sorry," Scott said, vaulting over Diana, draping his long cape around her head. "Can't allow that."

The fabric was designed to endure most damage, but she ripped it with ease, and tugging on the shreds, pulled Mister Miracle to her.

"Will kill you both, then."

"DO IT, DIANA! FOR DARKSEID!"

Scott shook his head. "Can't allow that, either."

She laughed. "You have no powers! You think you can escape me?"

Scott Free nodded. "Escape is always possible. You just need the right tool."

He pulled, and the golden lasso closed around Diana.

PART TEN: TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

"NO! YOU CAN'T!"

Granny's Power Rod fired, but its deadly blast was deflected by the bracelet on a quick moving wrist.

Diana, Princess of the Amazons of Themyscira, shook her head, still dazed. Protecting the man before her had been an unthinking reflex.

"What-?"

"Welcome back, Princess," Mister Miracle said.

Diana blocked two further blasts from Granny's weapon before kicking a large piece of fallen masonry at the old woman.

"Thanks," Scott said.

"No, thank you," Diana muttered, lifting the golden lasso off her neck, its glow increasing in her hand. "Why am I dressed like this?"

"You can't recall?"

She frowned, and with a grimace, removed her black leather choker. A small charred square behind its central jewel still smoked its ruin.

Scott squinted with curiosity, and shrill pings rose from his upper arm and waist. "Must've been a Father Box, I guess."

"What did this-? Why-? HERA!" Blue eyes lit up, and her mouth tightened in indignation. "THEY DARED?"

"Am afraid so."

"I was used, forced to... Merciful Athena, HOW COULD-?"

"DAMN YOU, SCOTT FREE!" Pushing the rubble aside, Granny stood up, her Power Rod glowing ominously.

Diana frowned. "Who-?"

"Granny Goodness. Local hostess."

"YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK YOU JUST UNDID?"

Diana's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I remember her now."

"YOU WILL PAY FOR-!"

"No," Diana cut in. "You will pay."

The lasso flashed like lightning made of gold, and it encircled Granny Goodness.

* * *

The citadel walls fell before his strength, and the Lowlies followed him, rushing into the inner courtyards.

* * *

Granny's eyes bulged, and gasping, she fell to her knees. She came face to face with all she was, and all she had failed to be. She recalled her ascent from among the Lowlies, and her training in Darkseid's Elite service. She remembered the only being she had ever loved and who had loved her back, and how he had died by her own hand, at Darkseid's command. She saw how she had allowed her body to age, despite the extended life she had earned in Darkseid's Elite, her shriveled looks reflecting the despair in her blackened soul.

Granny Goodness, merciless Mistress of Darkseid's evil orphanages, cradled her face in her hands, and wept.

* * *

In a terrace high above the battleground, Darkseid stood silently. Waiting.

* * *

"Is she alright?"

Mister Miracle nodded, placing two Mother Boxes on Barda's back, where the skin was exposed by the damaged armor. "She's tough, and these will help."

Wonder Woman clenched her fists. "I-I must face Him."

"Face Him? That's not the best-"

"He-He may have killed him!" She shook her head, trying to sort her memories. "Killed Superman!"

"He did? Damn, Metron didn't-"

"Tried to enslave me! Enslave an Amazon!"

"Yeah, he's that way, but-"

"He must pay! FOR KAL-EL! FOR EVERYTHING!"

She flew away before Mister Miracle could reply.

"By the Source," Scott muttered. "She's even more beautiful like that."

Orion nodded, frowning. "She is."

Scott turned to Orion, raising an eyebrow under his mask. "Why, Orion, I didn't know you-"

"Release me, will you?"

"And just what was she doing-?"

"Just release me, Scott Free."

* * *

Darkseid stood. Waiting. For her.

* * *

"Take Barda away, and find Lightray," Orion grimaced in disgust, as he fastened on Kalibak's torn loincloth. "I'll aid the Amazon against my father; that should be distraction enough."

"Orion, your Mother Box-?"

"Barda needs it more."

"But your rage-?"

"It may be useful."

* * *

The parademon hordes multiplied, endless reinforcements appearing from nowhere, and murderous blasts rained over the makeshift Hunger Dog army.

He could not protect all of them. No matter how hard he fought, more and more died all around him.

"DARKSEID!" he bellowed.

* * *

"You're getting heavier, dear," Mister Miracle said softly, balancing Barda's seven-foot frame on his shoulders, while moving from dungeon to dungeon. There were very few still-living tenants, and those most often cowered in fear in dark, rank corners as he peeked in. No one dared to follow him. "Must cut back on the sweets, I think."

The complex lock gave and he opened one more door.

"No! Please, no!"

"Lightray?"

"No, no more, please, I beg you. NO MORE!"

"It's Scott. I'll get you out of here."

"Please! The woman... It was... Horrible! Just horrible!"

"Oh, I know. Do I know."

* * *

Orion cursed loudly. Troops threw themselves at him with suicidal tactics, while Radion detonations forced him to flank through the twisting corridors. He had lost the Amazon's trail already, but he only needed to move higher.

* * *

Doors shattered with thunderous noise.

"DARKSEID!"

Turning about, the Lord of Apokolips left the balcony and returned to the vast hall, to face the enraged Amazon Princess. He smiled, pleased.

* * *

"DARKSEID!" the man in red and blue screamed again in frustration.

* * *

Orion charged through walls, steel, stone and mortar crumbling away like sand before his fury.

"FATHER! FACE ME!"

Suddenly he broke through to open air, into a vast, carnage-filled battleground.

* * *

"You shall pay, Murderer!" She tore away the dark leather clothes. Nakedness was far better, far cleaner, than any reminder of what they had tried to force on her.

"You are yourself again. Good." Darkseid approached Wonder Woman calmly, basking in her anger and defiance as much as in the beauty of her unclothed form. "The meddling done on your mind was a mistake."

"A mistake? A MISTAKE?"

"A regrettable one. Only in your full volition can you fulfill your role."

"Role?"

"That of Queen of Apokolips. My Queen."

"WHAT? Do you believe I-?"

"You believe the Kryptonian dead."

Diana's eyes grew wide open. "He is not-?"

"Not yet." Darkseid gestured, and a hologram filled the air between them, showing a scene of terrible death and destruction, that shook the Amazon's soul.

* * *

Suddenly, the parademons halted their fire, to stand instead in silent formation.

The Hunger Dogs huddled together by the thousands, fear making them grow still as well, more scared of unknown death than of a certain one. But their voices rose, and fingers pointed at the one who had burst violently from the citadel's walls.

"ORION!"

"ORION!"

"IT'S ORION!"

"THE RENEGADE!"

"DARKSEID'S OWN SON!"

The man in red and blue could not understand the words the huddled masses of Lowlies yelled, but he caught a name, and saw where the multiple fingers pointed: at a hulking, coarse-featured brute with a protruding brow.

"DARKSEID!"

With teeth and fists clenched, he charged.

Orion could barely frown before a flash of blue and red fell on him.

* * *

"The Kryptonian lives, Amazon. But he will be tested. By Apokolips' own Prodigal Son. It will be seen if any survives."

"But how-? Why?"

"They will provide suitable entertainment for the occasion."

"Entertainment? Are you mad? And the people? WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE?"

"People?"

"THEM! ALL OF THEM! ALL THOSE DEAD-?!"

"The Hunger Dogs? They are nothing. Rabble to be used as example, every few cycles. There are always more. Do not mind them."

Wonder Woman's voice became a faint whisper: "You-you are a monster!"

"They rebelled against their Lord, and forfeited their worthless lives. The parademons just await the order."

"NO!"

The golden lasso flashed in the air and surrounded the thick figure of the Apokolipsian tyrant.

PART ELEVEN: THE PACT

"Horrible, horrible..."

"Yeah, we get it," Scott muttered, dragging Lightray along, and shifting Barda slightly on his shoulders. Antigravity disks were not designed for such loads.

Mother Box warned him, and he rolled on the floor, pushing Lightray and Barda to the sides, just before the energy blast brought down much of the corridor.

"Knew I'd have you back, Scott Free. I always knew."

Granny Goodness strode closer, Power Rod in hand, her pendulous, striated breasts hanging down to her waist.

* * *

Orion's already injured ribs cracked under the attack. The Kryptonian was fast, very fast, and his strength was enormous.

"YOU FOOL!" Orion grabbed his attacker by the shoulders and threw him to a side. "STOP!"

"YOU MUST PAY, DARKSEID!"

"WHAT?"

The blow shook the courtyard.

* * *

"Interesting," Darkseid said, as the lasso blazed with golden fire around him. He grabbed the taut line and pulled on it, bringing the surprised Amazon to her knees before him.

"You expected a different reaction, but Darkseid is, and knows it. Truth is no revelation. Witness now Darkseid's Truth." He gestured towards the hologram, where Orion and Superman wrestled with each other. "Two of the universe's mightiest champions, engaged in deadly combat in your honor. Their lives and of the Hunger Dogs that so concern you, those are the betrothal gifts Darkseid offers you; such is His generosity."

"Betrothal gifts?" Wonder Woman stared, open-mouthed. "You are insane! I would never-!"

Red fire glowed under the granite-faced tyrant's brow.

"Their lives, Princess. All their lives. It is YOUR choice."

* * *

Lightray began to whimper in horror. Scott certainly could sympathize with how the poor fellow felt, even if Granny had him only for a short while. Life in New Genesis did not prepare you for some harsh realities.

"You were always Granny's favorite, Scott."

Even Mother Box began to ping in panic.

"Yet you hurt her, Scott, dear. You hurt Granny."

Scott looked around, trying to find Barda's Rod. It had to retain enough energy for defense.

"You left, Scott. You left Granny. You ran away."

He rose to a crouch, mind racing. Rubble by the tons blocked one way, and Granny approached from the other.

"You stole Barda, too. After she had been Chosen for Our Master, prepared for Him."

He could still flee, he always could, but he could never leave Barda, or Lightray.

"You were a bad boy, Scott. A very bad boy."

Mister Miracle breathed deeply. This was a trap he really had to escape. Fast.

* * *

Her fist struck his face.

* * *

"How could you hurt Granny like that, Scott, dear? Granny who loves you?"

"Loves me, my ass."

"Granny trained you, Scott. She knows all your tricks. You cannot fool Granny."

"Oh, I've since learned new tricks, Granny."

"Oh, really?"

"Really. Look behind you."

Granny snorted in derision. "HA! Is that what you-?"

The blow made even Scott wince.

"That's MY man, you old bitch," Barda spat.

* * *

The recently repaired hall collapsed into ruins all around Darkseid as blow after blow of furious power hurled him through thick walls and columns.

"Enough," he grunted, his massive hands seizing Wonder Woman's wrists. "Test not Darkseid's patience-"

Her kick swept both his legs aside, and she drove him into the floor, the impact forming a crater in the massive slab. She knelt over him, teeth clenched in warrior's fury. "Let them go or I will-"

"What will you do, Princess? You need only to pledge yourself to Darkseid's bed-"

"NO!" Her elbow rushed towards his jaw, but his massive hand blocked it, and he grabbed her again.

"You would doom the Kryptonian?"

"YOU WILL PERISH FIRST!"

Glass in several stories of the citadel shattered with the shock wave as her forehead struck his face.

Darkseid grimaced in pain, and his brutal slap threw Wonder Woman aside. "You may try, and fail."

"No." Diana spun on the floor, and her heel slammed into Darkseid's neck with ballistic power, driving him through the reinforced floor to the level beneath.

Darkseid coughed, and black blood seeped from a side of his mouth.

"You dare?" His eyes glowed and the whole level where Wonder Woman had stood was destroyed. Before Diana could dig herself out of the wreckage, Darkseid's hand grabbed her neck and pulled her up, held at an arm's length. "Your fierce spirit is appealing, woman, but do not think you could survive the Omega Effect if-"

Grabbing his outstretched arm, Diana kicked up with both feet at his chin. Darkseid fell back, and Diana fell on him, knees first, making the whole building shake violently. Her hands grabbed the tyrant's head, one high and the other low, and her eyes met his, fearlessly.

"Can your power kill me before I break your neck?"

Darkseid stared, motionless, and the glow in his eyes changed hue, turning a deeper, darker red. "You shall risk it, whatever the reply. You are peerless among the pitiful lambs of Earth, Princess. Truly, you are worthy of Darkseid. As none other ever was. Not Tigra. Not Barda. Only you."

Diana matched and held his stare. "And what makes you worthy of me?"

Darkseid's eyes opened wide before he broke into laughter, deep laughter that echoed in the cavernous chambers.

* * *

Granny spat blood, and lifted her head weakly. "You were the best of my Furies, Barda. You could've been first among His concubines!"

Barda kicked her in the ribs. "Not interested."

"ARGH! You were the only one in five generations who raised His interest at all! You-!"

"No wonder he tries to conquer the universe," Scott muttered. "Has lots to compensate for."

Granny reached for her fallen rod. "But you left! You went with a powerless runt!"

"Hey, I resent that."

"How, Barda? How could you spurn HIM? SPURN OUR LORD? For a mate who can't ever fuck you as you deserve?"

"Scott makes it up with enthusiasm, Granny. And skill. LOTS of skill." Barda's foot stuck Granny's jaw with brutal power, and the old woman collapsed at last. "Skill like you'd never imagine, Granny."

Scott smiled under his mask. "Thanks, dear."

"THANKS MY ASS! YOU WERE OGGLING THAT AMAZON CUNT! YOU AND THAT ASSHOLE ORION! DON'T YOU THINK I HEARD?"

* * *

"They are spared, all of them," Darkseid said at last, mouth still spread in a wide grin. "The Kryptonian, the Hunger Dogs... even that treacherous whelp Orion, and his misbegotten allies."

"We can all go? Freely?"

"You, Amazon, you can choose to go, or to stay, as new Queen of Apokolips. After your challenge has been met."

Diana frowned. "My challenge?"

"You questioned Darkseid's worthiness as your mate. You will be given your answer."

She stared, and pursed her lips. "Why would I care about such an answer?"

"Because you need to know, too."

"How can you presume to-?"

She clenched her fists. "You forced your deceit, your travesty of self upon me. You sought to taint me with your lies."

"A misguided effort by Darkseid's minions, doomed to fail. You rebelled against it from the start, it would not be hold for long. You, Amazon, are not to be forced or deceived. You must be won."

"You think I can be 'won'? Like a thing? Like a prize?" Her anger flared even higher. "By one like you? Your arrogance is astonishing!"

"You rejected the untruth, Amazon, the false identity, the false memories. But have you banished as well the desire you learned to embrace? Are you not still troubled by that longing?"

"I don't need to answer you."

"That is answer enough."

Releasing his head, she leaned back, still straddling him, her eyes locked defiantly with him. "I am troubled, yes. By the distaste of having held such feelings at all, even if they were only an illusion forced upon me."

"You are free now. Anything you still hold is because you wish it so. And you still do, don't you? Or will you lie to yourself, Amazon?"

She frowned, with growing unease. "No. I won't."

Darkseid smiled. "Then you accept it."

Diana's eyes blazed with anger and conflicted emotions. "I... cannot deny it."

"Is it not the same?"

"But what truth can there be in any lingering traces of anything born of coercion?"

"That is why you must find out." There was a finality in Darkseid's voice. He had stated his terms. The alternatives were war and death. "So you know. And can choose."

She bit her lower lip until it bled, seeking clarity in the pain. Her mouth and throat were dry. Surely there was no way she could find him attractive. He was a monster, made immeasurably dangerous by his great power and cruel, cold intelligence. Even if such vast strength of body and conviction could have a raw, virile appeal, he stood for so much of all that she was against. He was her enemy, physically and morally. Her antithesis.

But did dialectics not demand that thesis and anthesis be matched, in the quest for truth?

"Or are you afraid of what you may learn?"

Diana's eyebrows rose. Now it was also a challenge.

* * *

Orion breathed heavily, his building rage drowning his pain.

The Kryptonian's mind was clouded, anyone could see that, and he lacked a warrior's training. But Orion had been shackled by power drainers, and without his Mother Box, he had yet to heal from the beating the Amazon had given him. But he would not be defeated, not through one of his father's ploys.

If he had to kill the Kryptonian, so be it.

PART TWELVE: CHECK-MATE

"No kissing," Diana said, turning her face to a side, so Darkseid's rock-hard lips moved down from the determined line of her jaw, along her graceful neck, to clamp on one of her full breasts, biting a rosy nipple, before switching to the other. Both delicate nubs crowning the round teats grew hard in response to the rough caress.

He pushed her to her back, on the cracked floor, spreading her muscular thighs apart, to lean down between them and lick at her core, slowly, with powerful longitudinal sweeps of his tongue. She stiffened with each contact of the rough-surfaced, dry appendage rubbing its way from her perineum to her trimmed mound. After a dozen licks, he rose, licking his rocky lips, relishing her ineffable taste.

There were no further preliminaries. In a sense, combat had been their foreplay.

He tore away the fabric at his loins, and a shiver coursed her at the sight of his freed, rigid manhood. Grey-hued and crack-coursed, the massive erection seemed to bend space and awareness alike around its enormous girth and length.

The enormous glans, somehow resembling Darkseid's own helmeted head, pressed against her nether folds, and for a brief instant, she almost panicked. There was no way such a monster could enter her. It was impossible. It would tear her apart. But fear was not her master, and she dismissed it. She would survive whatever she had to endure. She was an Amazon, a Princess and Champion of her kind. She had agreed to mate with the evil Lord of Apokolips, for the greater good, and her own peace of mind.

And she would.

Spreading her long legs wider apart, Wonder Woman matched the tyrant's eyes, and spoke defiantly: "Go on. Do it."

With a deep grunt, Darkseid thrust forward.

* * *

"YOU FOOL! I'M NOT-AGH!"

"YOU MONSTER!"

The brutal fight between the two powerhouses had forced the Hunger Dogs to scatter for cover, running for their lives. The smartest ones noticed that the parademons had lowered their weapons, eyes only on the struggling titans, and took advantage to flee. Soon even the dumber ones realized the same, and the makeshift army of the rebellion vanished in a thousand directions, their revolution forgotten in the deep-rooted and finally-reasserted Apokolipsian instinct to survive.

"I'M NOT DARKSEID! I'M-!"

"LIAR!"

"SHUT UP, FOOL! I'LL-!"

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO FIGHTING?"

The two combatants turned to stare at the tall, shapely woman in golden armor who exited the citadel through the hole of Orion's passage, a slender blond figure carried with ease on her wide shoulder.

"CAN'T YOU MEN EVER STOP PLAYING? ARE YOU ALL CHILDREN?"

"LIGHTRAY!" Orion's hands left his opponent's throat and he ran towards the new arrivals, oblivious of giving his back to his foe.

"He's fine. Just a bit shaken," Mister Miracle said, warily looking at the clouds of parademons blotting the dark skies. "Things here don't look too good, though."

"I-I know you," the man in red and blue muttered, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Sure, Supes," Scott Free said, switching to English. "We never hanged out much or anything, but-"

"I know her, too."

He smiled, glancing at his wife. "Oh, yeah, Barda's hard to forget, isn't she?"

"You bet I am," said Barda, handing Lightray over to Orion's arms.

"Orion?"

"Lightray." Orion's voice had a softness at odds with his crude, dirt-stained features.

"Orion, she... Granny... It was-"

"It's over. I'm here." Gently, their lips met.

* * *

She knew it would hurt.

Yet the pain was intense beyond what she had ever imagined, and she fought for breath, her entire body feeling about to burst. For a moment, all her universe contracted into the core of impossibly exquisite agony at her core, pain redefining reality in its sharp purity.

He was gentle, as he had never been, but she was pristinely tight and he was huge. Monstrously so.

She cried out as his crack-coursed head almost passed her gate, her voice breaking into a throaty, near-inaudibly gasp.

He pulled back, his glans sliding out partially, making her whimper weakly, before entering again, the engorged head thrusting past her entrance with sudden, irresistible power.

She arched her back violently and her voice returned to her in a loud cry, the first of many, that matched the savage rhythm of his thrusting.

"OH, GODS! GODS-!"

* * *

He stared in surprise at the two men embracing.

"He... He's not Darkseid?"

"Who, him? Darkseid? No. That's Orion."

"Orion?"

"You'd never met him?"

"Is he-?"

"Oh, that? Yeah. He's in the other side more than just politically, you know?"

"Oh." He shook his head. "And... me?"

"You?"

"-Who am I?"

* * *

The building shook ominously, while the sensation grew inside her until it was unbearable. With a loud moan, Diana threw him backwards, and moved on top, her mouth and loins meeting his hungrily.

* * *

Lightray frowned. "He's not right."

Orion snorted. "Could tell you that."

"He feeds on light, sunlight. I can tell. But here..."

"Just so you know," Scott cut in. "There are lots of parademons just above us. Lots."

"He must be taking his energy from the Firepits, at the lack of clean sunlight, and that sickens him. I will help him."

"No! Save your strength-!"

But before Orion completed his plea, pure, blinding radiance exploded from Lightray's body, painting the glum scene of Apokolips a clear, clean white for an instant.

As the light faded, a small, ruined square of circuitry fell uselessly from the back of Superman's neck, and the Man of Steel raised his head.

* * *

He groaned and grunted his culmination, but she did not let him stop, her body furiously demanding more, and to his amazement, he remained able, like he had never been before.

"OH, GODS! GO-O-O-ODS!"

* * *

"You had a Father Box on, too," Scott observed.

Superman shook his head, and his eyes raced all about the ravaged courtyard. As the memory of his identity returned, what had just happened turned hazy, fading, but he remembered something important. Very important.

"Diana? DIANA?"

"The Amazon?" Orion pointed up. "She went after my father. We must aid her-"

"DIANA!"

He flew up, and away.

* * *

The whole structure shook near catastrophe, in thunderous sympathetic resonance.

"OH-GOD-! MY-GOD-!"

* * *

Superman stood still in the smoke-filled Apokolipsian air, floating near the final levels of Darkseid's citadel, with eyes wide open in shock.

Even if his X-ray vision had failed to find her, his hearing could have heard her miles and miles away.

* * *

"I-I had no idea," Diana gasped breathlessly.

Darkseid remained silent, his arm around her.

"It's so... so different than with women. I never imagined...," she continued. "And it hurt so much... At first..."

She felt him stir in concern, and smiled.

"But I... loved it. It hurt... but that made it better. I loved how it hurt so much, at first... and then it just... It made it so, so much better."

Darkseid breathed deeply.

"You must stay. Rule at Darkseid's... At my side. Be mine."

He felt her tense against him, even as he spoke, and realized his mistake.

"I am not a thing to be owned. What just happened is not-!"

"I never could own you. No one could ever."

"We... I just... I did not..."

"You would rule by my side, as my equal. My Queen."

"Darkseid..."

"Diana... There will be no concubines. No one else. Just you. Just... us."

"Us?"

"The universe will be ours."

"Stop."

"Our children will be magnificent-"

"Stop that."

"Stop what-?"

"Everything. Stop it. Stop trying to conquer the universe."

"What?"

"Free your people. Use your power for their good. Rule them with wisdom, and compassion."

"Compassion?"

She looked away, her voice trembling with doubt, embarrassment and faint hope.

"You are a monster. You have done awful, horrible things, but... Maybe you can change. Maybe you can..."

"Change?"

She met his eyes again. "Everyone can change. Everyone can find redemption."

"Redemption?"

"Become the ruler you can be. Righteous and wise. And then, only then, I will consider... dating."

"Dating?"

"At first. Just dating."

"Just 'dating'?"

She blushed, deeply. "Well, sex is important, very important... in getting to know each other."

Darkseid stared, caught by her bright blue eyes. He reveled in the glow of her presence, in her radiant beauty, in her graceful body against his, all softness and firmness in perfect balance.

"We must see how it all works out," she continued. "Not rush into things."

She was magnificent, exquisite, everything he had ever needed without knowing it.

And she only asked him to forsake an universe, and all he had ever wanted.

* * *

The Omega Effect flashed, delivering all to their destinations, safe, but not unchanged.

* * *

"He just let us all go?" Scott Free asked, frowning. "Just like that?"

Barda shrugged. "Can't complain."

"But how-?" His voice was full of annoyance. He had been looking forward to a great, daring escape. "How did she convince him so easily?"

Barda sighed. Men were sometimes so stupid.

Scott shook his head. "It's just... anticlimactic."

Anticlimatic? Barda doubted it.

* * *

"Kal-El."

"Diana."

"It's good to see you."

"Yes, likewise."

She floated closer to him, tentatively. "I was... worried."

"So was I." He looked down. "I'm glad it all came... That it all ended well."

"Yes."

He sighed. "We were missing for several days. We should-"

"Yes. We should."

Both remained still in mid-air for a while longer, searching for words. Finally, they just smiled at each other.

"See you."

"See you."

Without further exchange, Superman and Wonder Woman flew apart, in different directions.

EPILOGUE: THE MORNING AFTER

Amazing Grace relaxed in the hot bath, slaves adding fragrant oils to the mix silently. Her status in the Elite had risen, but one could always hope for more.

Maybe she was not strong enough physically to lead the Furies, but she had survived mating with the Kryptonian, and it would be an interesting wait during the following month.

The prophecies said that the Son may one day overthrow the ruler of Apokolips. But prophecies were always imprecise, were they not? Maybe it would not be Darkseid's Son after all.

* * *

"Smallville! Milked the cows all week?"

"Um? Oh, hi Lois."

Something told Lois to skip the Wonder Boobs barb she was readying, and she looked at him, instead, really looked. "So, sick all week, eh?"

Clark Kent smiled, wistfully. "I'm better now, thanks."

Lois shifted uneasily as she watched him walk away. Something about Kent was different. Very different.

She realized he was even cute, in his own simple, boyish way.

* * *

The Lord of Apokolips stood on a high terrace, booted feet spread wide apart, thick arms held calmly behind his massive torso, as was his custom.

Unlike his custom, his eyes now aimed up, towards the skies over his domain, where dense smoke blocked all but the most determined stars.

His thoughts, however, remained his own.

* * *

High above the Earth, near the end of the atmosphere the graceful figure of Diana of Themyscira, Princess of the Amazons, floated, defying gravity, watching dawn spread its golden glow over the rim of the world.

Alone.

THE END


End file.
